# How immigration lawyers request a bank statement from clients and sponsors

Source: https://dokutrak.com/requests/immigration-lawyers/bank-statement
Author: Arthur Teboul, DokuTrak
Published: 2026-11-15
Language: en-US

> Ask for bank statements with a clear purpose. For a sponsor whose income falls short, ask for recent statements showing the assets they can count on the I-864. For a marriage case, ask for statements of joint accounts in both spouses’ names, spread over the marriage, as evidence of a shared financial life.

## Why immigration lawyers need a bank statement

Bank statements do two jobs in family cases. On the affidavit of support, the form instructions let a sponsor add assets, such as savings, when income alone is not enough, and the statements document those balances. In a spousal petition, a joint account with ordinary household spending is one of the ways couples show the marriage is genuine, which USCIS weighs alongside the other evidence.

## What exactly to ask for

For assets: the most recent statements for each account the sponsor relies on, every page, showing the owner’s name and the balance. For a bona fide marriage: statements of joint accounts from different points in the marriage, not only the latest one, with both names visible on each statement.

## What to check when it arrives

- The account holder names appear on every statement, and both spouses are named on joint accounts.
- Every page of each statement is there, including the summary page with the balance.
- For assets, the balance matches the figure the sponsor enters in the assets section of the I-864.

## Email to send your client

Subject: Bank statements for your case

```text
Hi [Client name],

I need some bank statements for your case. Please download them as PDFs from your online banking.

For any account you share with your spouse, please send statements from a few different months since you married, not just the latest one. Joint accounts help show the life you have built together.

If you are the sponsor and plan to count savings, please also send the most recent statement for those accounts, with every page.

Could you send them by [date]? If an account is only in one name, or you are not sure which statements to pick, just ask.

Thank you,
[Your name]
```

## Sources

The rules above come from these primary sources. Check them, and your local rules, before you rely on them.

- [USCIS Form I-864 instructions](https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-864instr.pdf)
- [USCIS Form I-130 instructions](https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-130instr.pdf)
- [8 C.F.R. § 204.2(a)(1)(i)(B)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/8/204.2)

## Ask once. DokuTrak does the chasing.

- Your client uploads from one link, with no account and no password.
- Reminders go out on a schedule, by default 2, 5, 10 and 14 days after the request, until the file arrives.
- With AI review switched on in your workspace (it is off by default), each upload gets a first pass that flags a file that is not a bank statement, an unreadable or blurry scan or a copy where one of these is missing or cut off: the account holder, the statement period. It says so when it is not sure.
- You accept every file or mark it for re-upload, and your client gets the note by email. The AI never accepts a file.

14-day free trial, no card. Add one only to keep going.