When asking a family member to sponsor your application for a green card the alien family member needs to fully understand the magnitude of the commitment he or she is asking her U.S. citizen or U.S. domicile family member to take on.

When asking a family member to sponsor your application for a green card the alien family member needs to fully understand the magnitude of the commitment he or she is asking her U.S. citizen or U.S. domicile family member to take on. The alien green card sponsorship commitment for the U.S. family member is not an insignificant one.

• Sponsoring Family Member Income Requirements
The INS Form I-864 is required to be filled out by the sponsoring family member of the green card applicant in order to evidence income, assets and earnings that came be made available for the sponsored family member to prove that he or she will not ever need public funds or U.S. welfare for his or her support while he or she is in the United States. That means that the sponsoring family member will need to sign an affidavit stating that he or she has enough income or assets to maintain not only himself and his own family but enough to maintain the sponsored relative if need be. This does not mean the sponsored relative is currently without funds or is expected to become without funds. The "I-864 affidavit" is a sort of insurance policy assuring that the sponsored alien relative will never at any time or under any circumstance be without funds while he or she is in the United States.

• Income and Assets That Can Be Used to Support that Affidavit Statements

The income and assets of the U.S. citizen or U.S permanent resident can be used to show that the sponsored family member will not be without financial support and the income and assets belonging to the sponsored family member may also be used to meet the affidavit requirements. The sponsoring family member must show that he can maintain himself and his family, including the sponsored relative at 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. The Federal Poverty Guidelines are updated every year. They can be found on Form I-864P, Poverty Guidelines on the INS web site. Those family member sponsors that are currently serving in the Army, Navy, Marines or Coast Guard will only need to meet an income of 100% of the poverty line for their household size.

The income and assets of other family members may also be added into the mix in order to meet the household income requirements. This will involve filling out and signing INS Form I-864A, which involves a sort of contract between the Family Member Sponsor and those "other family members" and their income and assets to sponsor the green card applicant. Those additional family members would need to be at least eighteen years old in order to participate.

Please feel free to set up a free initial consultation with Attorney Hendrik Pretorius today to consider your options.