Family money can require analysis of ownership and the actual contribution arrangement. Joint accounts do not eliminate the need to establish lawful sources, and one spouse’s separate funds may need a documented transfer or gift explanation.
Identify the principal investor’s capital
Collect both spouses’ relevant earnings and account records where their funds contribute. Have counsel review ownership and any gift terms while separately confirming derivative eligibility. Children’s ages and marital status still need attention.
The household should also plan for a period without new U.S. earnings because submitting the investor petition does not itself provide employment authorization. Combining savings raises the question of whose capital is being invested, and it needs answering before the money moves.
Identify the principal investor and establish that the capital being invested is theirs, whether because they earned it, because it was jointly held and a division has been documented, or because a gift or transfer between spouses has been made and recorded. Each of those is a different explanation requiring different evidence, and describing joint savings loosely as ours leaves the essential step undocumented. Keep this separate from derivative eligibility, which flows from the relationship to the principal rather than from who contributed.
Because the process may be lengthy, raise any child nearing 21 with counsel early; statutory age-calculation protection is fact-dependent.