Hello,

I, the petitioner, filed an I-130 for my brother in 2006 and finally got a notification from the NVC that my approved I-130 petition has been received at the NVC. Initially, I submitted an I-864 that I signed and an I-864A with my wife's information. I submitted my wife's I-864A in the CEAC portal but was told to add her as a household member. I thought every member of the household needed to submit an affidavit of support if everybody's income was being used to meet the minimum income requirement.

After doing some research and consulting an immigration lawyer, I was told that I could fill out an I-864 and fulfill the income requirement by getting a joint sponsor to fill out an I-864. I submitted all my tax documents and the I-864 along with adding my joint sponsor and his documentation.

Now, all of my documents (the petitioner), the joint sponsor's documents, and the civil documents for the applicant have now been accepted in the CEAC portal however I am still being asked to fill out an I-864A for my wife and add her as a household member. Why is that?

I thought you only needed an affidavit of support for everybody whose income was being used to satisfy the income requirement? My wife has been unemployed for the last year and my income is not sufficiently high enough (which is why I used a joint sponsor), so NVC should not require that I add my wife as a household member and have her fill out an I-864A.

Tax situation: Married Filing Jointly with my wife

Side note: I asked the NVC why I needed to submit an I-864A for my wife but was told to mark any missing document as "Not available" and explain why you cannot provide the document but she's not a household member with documents that are missing.

Sorry for the long post!!!