Sponsor question

[TAL 0]

Sorry if this has been asked before but I had a couple questions:

Currently my spouse and I are in Japan and when I leave Japan, I will get back what I paid into the pension which will be about 900,000 yen. I know in the website it says you can use your pension but can I use this pension refund? how would I prove it?

Also it says you can use foreign assets if you can show it can be turned into cash and taken to the US. We have Japanese bank accounts, how can we show Japan will let us transfer and remove this money without a problem?

now when it talks about the poverty line, is it talking about just MY household income poverty line? my household would be 2, me and the intending immigrant, right? If my parents or friend decided to help sponsor will they be held to the same poverty line requirements? so would we have to cover their 92,000 first and any leftover would cover ours? or do they just have to cover our 92,000 (my poverty line x 5 since we're using assets)?

I think I'm thinking too hard about this. I hope I'm making sense, I feel like my thoughts are all over, sorry!

[Penguin_ie 6,005]

You can't use the pension refund because you don't have it at the time of interview.

The local US embassy will already know the country's rules on moving money, but that doesn't mean they will accept fireign bank accounts. Whether foreign assets can be used depends on the embassy- check with yours. If it's easily transferable, why not transfer everything but what you need to live into a US account? That is what we did.

If you sponsor, it's just your household (2= you + immigrant, assuming no kids or other dependants). If you have a co-sponsor, it's their household+ immigrant; you don't count as you are a US citizen. So if the co-sponsor has a spouse, no minor kids or other dependants, it's co-sponsor+ his wife+ immigrant= 3.

[TAL 0]

You can't use the pension refund because you don't have it at the time of interview.

The local US embassy will already know the country's rules on moving money, but that doesn't mean they will accept fireign bank accounts. Whether foreign assets can be used depends on the embassy- check with yours. If it's easily transferable, why not transfer everything but what you need to live into a US account? That is what we did.

If you sponsor, it's just your household (2= you + immigrant, assuming no kids or other dependants). If you have a co-sponsor, it's their household+ immigrant; you don't count as you are a US citizen. So if the co-sponsor has a spouse, no minor kids or other dependants, it's co-sponsor+ his wife+ immigrant= 3.

Thanks! That makes sense! I got a terrifying email from my parents that they're worried their house won't appraise for enough and they may even be upside down like many people are right now. We were hoping to just use the house as an asset and be done with it but now we're looking for any other way possible. We may have to plead with friends and other family but I'm hoping it won't come down to that

[TAL 0]

Now I'm looking around at other options and I realize I have a lot of US citizen friends here in Japan and a couple that have said they'd be willing to help sponsor. I know it says the sponsor must be domiciled in the US which my friends are, they plan to move back to the US in a couple of years and have maintained credit cards, bank accounts, and a mailing address in the US, but their income is currently foreign since they are working for a local board of education.

Would they be able to sponsor? Would their income not count because it's foreign?

[Penguin_ie 6,005]

No, the sponsor must live in the USA, and at the very least file taxes as a resident.