Immigration Forum / USA Marriage Base / October 2004

It's true if: the brother lives alone. If so him + you = 2; his salary
must be just under $16000 per year before taxes. If his salary is less
than that, he must use assets, which is where the X5 thing comes in, but
I'll bet his salary is +16K.

As others have explained but you continue to return to, the 5 x rule
that you continually refer to is for assets which are used in place of
earned income.

Your fiancee is going to have to complete the I-134 Affidavit of
Support (AOS) for your K-1 visa in England.  This is regardless of
whether or not she meets the requirements.  If she does not, this is
were the joint/co-sponsor comes in.  The J/CS will need to also give
you an I-134 AOS for submission at the time of your K-1 interview at
the US Consulate in London.

The same issues will come up after the K-1 is approved, you come to the
US, you get married and she files for your Adjustment of Status (Adj).
This time around, however, she will need to complete the I-186 Affidavit
of Support and again this is whether or not she is financially able to
meet the requirements.  Again, the J/CS has to kick in with another AOS
for you if she is incapable of meeting the financial requirements.  And
this time, he will do the I-864.

Now for both the I-134 and the I-864 the principal requirement is that
if one earns 125% of the poverty guidelines for the family size (the
current members living within the home) plus one (the foreign spouse
and/or fiancee), then that is all that is required to be proved for
financial sponsorship.  However, if the USC fiancee/spouse does not met
the financial requirements with earned income/salary, then assets can be
used to make up the different.  I believe Ian spelled it out for you.
If your fiancee's disability income is say $15,000 annually then she
would need to make up the difference of $12,538 times 5 in assets.  This
formula is the same for the C/JS if there is a monetary gap between
earned income/salary and the 125% level.

As for your buying a house, etc., please note that there have been
people on this forum who have posted that the US Consulate in London has
allowed them to sponsor themselves if they have enough in assets.  I am
unsure, but reason dictates, that the 125% x 5 number would be based on
a single person ..... YOU and would not include your fiancee's family
and/or the fiancee herself.

My suggestion, therefore, would be to e-mail the US Consulate in London
and ask them specifically if you can do this if you have the assets
available to meet this financial sponsorship level.  If it is possible,
it will get you into the US for the purpose of marriage and then after
marriage you can use your brother-in-law as a C/JS for the I-864 and
hopefully you will be able to accept employment if employment in your
field is available in your US location and then at the time of the Adj
interview substitute a new I-864 completed by your wife and yourself and
alleviate your brother-in-law from the financial burden of being your
sponsor for god knows how long.

Rete