2006 Poverty Guidelines and Family Based Immigration

The 2006 poverty guidelines were issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Jan 24 th , as listed in the table blow. These guidelines are used to establish that the sponsor of a family-based immigration petition meets the income requirement (125% of the poverty income) and assures that the sponsored alien will not become a US public charge. The 2006 Poverty Guidelines become effective April 1, 2006 .

The new yearly poverty guidelines have been adjusted by HHS according to the fluctuation of price in the proceeding year, and are generally published in February. (However, they were published on Jan 24 th this year. )

The poverty guidelines are only applied to family based immigration, not to employment based immigration. If a US citizen (the sponsor) is bringing a relative to live permanently in the United States, he/she must accept legal responsibility for financially supporting this family member by completing and signing an affidavit of support. In the affidavit of support, the sponsor has to prove that his/her household income is not lower than 125% of the federal poverty level for your household size (however, A sponsor who is on military active duty and is sponsoring his/her spouse or child can prove income only equal to the poverty levels). Based on the table above, the poverty level for a specific family is based on the number of persons in the household. In a family based immigration petition, the beneficiary is included in the total number of the sponsor's family so that the income level of the sponsor must be higher. For example, Mr. Wang and his wife are US citizens and their two children were born in the U.S. Now he wants to file a family based immigration petition for his father. He must prove his household income is equal to or higher than 125% of the poverty level for a 5-person family, which is $29,250. The sponsor's legally enforceable responsibility lasts until the beneficiary becomes a U.S. citizen or has worked in the United States for 40 qualifying quarters.

If the petitioner could not reach the basic income level, he/she could find a joint-sponsor, whose status and income level must be qualified for a sponsor as well. In addition, the petitioner could provide his assets such as cash, stock, bond and/or property as a substitution. However, he/she should prove that the value of the assets is equal to or more than 5 times of the difference between his/her income level and the required 125% poverty level for his/her family size. Taking Mr. Wang as an example, if his household income is only $25,000, which is $4,250 less than the lowest income level, he should provide assets that value no less than $21,250 ($4,250*5=$21,250).

(02/24/2006)

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