Sponsoring Spouse and Father

[AnnaSimpson]

I just have a question about the financial support as a US citizen when petitioning for immediate relatives to get a green card. If I'd like to marry a person currently present in US and also wanted to apply a green card for my father (77 years old) who is currently living abroad, how much money do I need to make? Should I need to have an income of 125% above poverty guideline for a household of 3 ($27,150+)? Or do I need to make more than that? I can't seem to find an article covering petitioning for 2 alien relatives at the same time. I live in the midwest by the way. Thank you so much in advance for your advice.

[flyingron]

You count all the people in your household. It matters not if they are aliens or native-born US citizens. Presuming that the only ones who will be living with you are your spouse and father, that indeed is a household of three and you must make $27,150 (it's higher in Alaska and Hawaii, but you said you are in the midwest). Understand that is the legal threshold. You'd better be prepared to make more than that. What you are promising with the affidavit of support is to keep those you are petitioning for OFF needing public assistance (even if they get work authorization, your obligation continues until they get enough of their own work history).

It would behoove you to sit down with an attorney. There are a lot of forms and such required for both the adjustment of status for your wife and to bring in your father. You screw it up and you can lose the (rather substantial) filing fees and at a minimum wasting a lot of time and possibly blocking what you are trying to do entirely.

I'm going to assume you're over 21 years of age and are now a US citizen.

The next question is whether your wife LAWFULLY entered the US (even if she is now out of status). If so, once you file the adjustment of status, things should work out eventually.
The other good news, is that for the IR1 (spouse) and IR4 (parent) for US citizens, just have "normal" processing delays rather than any artificial queues to get in. It would seem of the late that given that most travel is shutdown due to COVID, State is actually doing pretty well on the backlogs.

[AnnaSimpson]

Thank you so much for your reply. I appreciate it.