S20

Thank you all, this was very helpful!

Hello, 

I have a question about my application for adjustment of status. I am an Italian citizen. I applied last October after marrying a US citizen. 

We received a request for evidence for my form I-485. It regards our income. Long story short: we are both PhD students. We work part-time for our University, and we have low incomes. The request for evidence has two points.

First, it reads: "For the intending immigrant's income to be included in the household income, it must have been from a lawful source and earned while the intending immigrant was authorized to work in the United States." For this part I am presenting the following evidence: 
-    I-94 (most recent entry);
-    F1 visa; 
-    I-20 history;
-    W2 forms for the last three years (2015-2017), which show that my employer is my University; 
-    Tax returns for the last three years (2015-2017), which show that all of my taxable income corresponds to the income reported by my University on the W2 forms. 

I completed my PhD program last month, and I received an offer letter from an employer. I also received my EAD last month. I am planning to submit the offer letter to show that I have future income (which is comfortably above 125% poverty guidelines). 

The second point of the request for evidence reads: "Based on the documents submitted with Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, for the petitioner/sponsor, MY WIFE, the income did not meet 125% (100% if military) of the poverty guideline for the petitioner/sponsor's household size. Submit evidence from a qualifying joint sponsor."

My main question is: Do I actually have to submit evidence from a qualifying joint sponsor?

Initially I thought that I only needed to present evidence that my income comes from a lawful source. In this way, including my income, our household income would be higher than 125% of the poverty guideline for a household of 2 (my wife and I). But I am having second thoughts, because the letter clearly says, "Submit evidence from a qualifying joint sponsor," and it never says, "present either this or that evidence." 

If I have to submit evidence from a qualifying joint sponsor, I will probably have follow-up questions. 

In the meantime, does anybody have an answer to my question? Please, and thank you so much!