Hi,

I was just laid off from my job today after 18 years of service and we are expecting that my fiancee's interview is in late August. Prior to the lay-off, we would have easily met the affidavit of support requirements. Now however, I need to ask my parents' to co-sponsor. They naturally have some questions and my mom is very concerned about her privacy.

As the petitioner I'm planning on providing the following for my I-134:
- 3 years tax returns if available
- 3 months of bank statements
- stock option statement
- 401k statement
- final paychecks
- copy of severance package description
- copy of personal business incorporation
- copies of job applications

Hopefully, this alone will show sufficient assets and intent to continue.working. However, to be extra safe, I've asked my parents to co-sponsor. My question is for those of you with co-sponsors, what is the minimum information they provided. For example, did they just provide enough information and documentation to show an income meeting 125% of the appropriate poverty level, or did they provide multiple years of tax returns, bank statements, and retirement annuity statements?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
PPFKL

ppfkl,

The copies of job applications are meaningless - intent to continue working does not pay bills, working pays bills. Consider taking a job, almost any job, promptly even if it's not a job that suits you if you can find something that will pay more than the state unemployment compensation. Or a part-time job that will pay less if it won't interfere with your job hunting, it should extend the duration that you can draw unemployment, since most programs have a cap on the total that you can collect. Even a substandard job or unemployment plus a part-time job just may keep you above the poverty level on income until you can find something that suits you better.

A sponsor can reveal only what they want to reveal as long as it is sufficient. Plan on providing 1 or 3 years of past tax returns in any case, in addition to material that documents what is revealed on the I-134..

Yodrak

Thanks for the reply. Let me give a little more background on my situation and ask a couple of follow-up questions.

I've been fully employed for the past 22 years and was laid off from a 6-figure job. My 401k alone has 10x the 125% level and I have stock options, savings, and 10 months of severance.

Has anyone gone through a similar situation and passed the affidavit of support hurdle without a co-sponsor?

Regarding co-sponsors, I believe my parents' pensions easily surpass the 125% poverty level minimum. For those of you with a co-sponsor in a similar situation, did your co-sponsor provide anything more than just a statement from their pension provider documenting that income?

My goal is to find out what the absolute minimum information my parents need to provide and see based on others experiences if we really need them to co-sponsor.

Thanks again,
FangKeLei