The CNMI’s low minimum wage, and the CNMI’s generally low wage scales compared to most of the rest of the U.S., don’t help. In prior columns we have briefly discussed the minimum wage requirements. Today we will discuss specific requirements, and some specific solutions to common income problems. We have found that most people are able to find a way to meet the minimum income requirements.
Where do we start? The Poverty Guidelines
The minimum income requirements are based on the federal government’s concern that a lawful permanent residents not become a public burden. The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service Poverty Guidelines, Form I-864P, sets out the minimum income requirements for any size household. Note the word “household”; USCIS makes its determination by counting heads, not just family members. For example, if a couple has two children and a housekeeper, that’s a household of five, not four. The CNMI is subject to the same minimum income level requirements as Guam, the 48 mainland states, the Virgin Islands, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Most households must have income (or an acceptable substitute) equal to 125 percent of amounts stated in the Poverty Guidelines.
The Poverty Guidelines are published each year in February or March. For a non-military household of two, the 2009 Poverty Guidelines require a household income of $18,212. To calculate your household size and minimum income requirement, add $4,675 for each additional person.
The military gets a break
Active duty military personnel sponsoring their spouses or children (but not their parents) only need income equal to 100 percent of the poverty levels stated in the Guidelines, not 125 percent like everyone else. For a military household of two, for example, the minimum income level is $14,570, or nearly $4000 less than what is required of non-military households. Add $3,740 for each additional person in a military sponsor’s household.
Whose income counts?
USCIS looks at household income: the sponsor’s income, the sponsored immigrant’s income, and the income of other household members (if the household members agree to be co-sponsors). If the household income is not enough, and a joint sponsor agrees to share responsibility, the determination whether the joint sponsor is eligible is based on the joint sponsor’s household, not the sponsored immigrant’s household. So if the immigrant is a non-military housewife who lives with her husband and four small children, the Poverty Guidelines require a minimum income of $36,912. But if her elderly U.S. citizen,or USC, uncle who lives alone agrees to be a joint sponsor, he only needs an income of $18,212 to qualify; he does not need to have an income big enough to meet the Poverty Guidelines for his niece’s household.
The FICA exception
There is an important exception to the Poverty Guidelines requirements. Immigrants who have paid U.S. Social Security tax (“FICA” on your paystubs) for 40 quarters — 10 years — are exempt from the minimum income requirements. So are immigrants who have been married for at least 10 years to a USC who has paid FICA for 40 quarters. If you think you might qualify for the exemption, you can get a printout of your FICA payment record from the Social Security Administration’s office on Saipan, at the Marina Heights II building in Puerto Rico.
In the CNMI, many USC sponsors are current or former government employees, who pay into the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement System instead of U.S. Social Security. This exemption is not available to them. Neither is it available to Filipino contract workers who are exempt from FICA by treaty. FICA is usually deducted from wages of Filipino citizens who are who are spouses of USCs, however, and these applicants may qualify for the exemption. It is uncertain whether the 40 quarters of FICA has to be earned during the marriage which qualifies the immigrant to become an LPR. This is an issue we are working on clarifying with USCIS.
Can we use our assets to qualify?
Yes, but you cannot trade asset value for income on a dollar-for-dollar basis. The value of the asset offered must be at least five times the amount of the income shortfall. Suppose the household income of our housewife, husband and four kids totals $32,000 — just under $5,000 short of the $36,912 required by the Guidelines — but they live in the family’s homestead worth $40,000. Since they need to have assets worth at least $25,000, (five times the $5,000 shortfall), they can use the homestead to qualify, if they can prove its value. (We usually show value using a “broker’s price opinion,” which is a real estate professional’s informal valuation of the likely selling price of a property, rather than the much more expensive formal appraisal by a licensed appraiser.)
Joint sponsors: Who, for how long, and for what?
The joint sponsor must be a USC or LPR, but does not need to be a family member, and can live in the CNMI or anywhere else in the U.S. Although the joint sponsor is most often related to the immigrant or to the immigrant’s principal sponsor, we have seen friends and employers act as joint sponsors and, in one of our cases, a school principal sponsored an immigrant teenager who had been her student.
As we have said before, being a joint sponsor is like co-signing for a car loan, except that the obligation is more open-ended. Because the minimum income requirements in the Poverty Guidelines are intended to screen out immigrants who may require public assistance, the sponsor (whether the principal sponsor or a co-sponsoring household member or a joint sponsor who is not a household member) may be responsible for repaying the government for certain public benefits used by the sponsored immigrant. Note that this applies only to benefits used by the immigrant, not by the rest of the family. Food stamps are a good example: if the USC members of the family — say, our housewife’s USC children and husband — receive food stamps but she does not, the sponsor is not required to make any repayment. If our housewife applies for and receives food stamps, however, the sponsor may be asked to cover the expense.
The sponsor’s obligation is not forever. The sponsor’s liability ends when the sponsored immigrant becomes a USC, or has (or can be credited with) 40 quarters of FICA payments, or is no longer an LPR, or dies.
We will e-mail a copy of the 2009 Form I-864P to anyone who sends an email request. The Form I-864, “Affidavit of Support,” available online from USCIS, has detailed explanations and instructions regarding the financial requirements. You can download Form I-864 (and I-864P and all other USCIS forms) from www.uscis.gov/forms.
The information contained in this column is intended as general information only, and not as individual legal advice. Readers should obtain professional legal advice before taking action with respect to their individual situations. Readers may submit questions regarding federalization or immigration issues to the authors by e-mail to [email protected]. Readers may also e-mail written questions through the Marianas Variety at [email protected].
