The Affidavit of Support: What are the Requirements and My Responsibilities as a Sponsor?

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For anyone going through the process of filing for immigration benefits for a family member, the Affidavit of Support is a necessary step before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") can fully consider your application for approval. As the sponsor for your non-citizen relative's application, you must sign a contract with the U.S. Government where you agree to use your financial resources to support your relative if and when they are given authorization to enter, live and work in the United States. This contract is known as the Affidavit of Support.

The Affidavit of Support is a legal requirement that must be fulfilled for all immigration applications involving immediate relatives (i.e., spouses, parents, and children) and relatives falling within the visa preference categories. In order to qualify as an eligible sponsor for submitting the Affidavit of Support, you must be at least 18 years old and either a U.S. citizen or Legal Permanent Resident ("LPR") (i.e., greencard holder). When a sponsor signs the Affidavit of Support they are accepting full responsibility for financially supporting their relative until they become a U.S. citizen, which depending on the basis of their application can be between 3-5 years.

During this time period, if the relative ever receives a means-tested public benefit (e.g., Medicaid, SSI, SNAP, etc.), the sponsor is required to pay back whichever agency issued the benefit or else they face being sued in court for violating the terms of the Affidavit of Support. In addition, the sponsor must meet basic income requirements that are equal to or exceed the U.S. poverty guideline level by 125% for your household size. In calculating your household size, you must consider yourself, dependents, any relatives living with you and the non-citizen relative that you are sponsoring. For example, if you are married with two children and sponsoring your mother to come to the United States, your household size would be 5, and you would need to earn at least $38,350 per year.

If you are unable to meet the minimum income requirements on your own, you may include the cash value of your assets (i.e., money in savings accounts, stocks, bonds, and property, etc.); however, you must prove that the value is worth five times the difference between the basic income requirement for your household size and your current income. Using the example above, if you were making $36,000 per year, you would need to have assets worth $11,750 or more. In addition, you may also include the income and assets of members of your household who are related to you by birth, marriage or adoption; however, they must have been listed as dependents on your most recent tax return or lived with you for the last six months.

Finally, if you still cannot meet the income requirements, you may include a joint sponsor, who is willing to accept legal responsibility for supporting your family member with you. The joint sponsor does not need to be related to you, but they must meet all the same eligibility requirements as you. Most importantly, only the joint sponsor's household size will be taken into consideration and they must earn enough income to exceed the poverty guideline amount. Unfortunately, you cannot combine your income with that of a joint sponsor.

Once you've met the income requirements and submitted the Affidavit of Support with your tax returns and breakdown of finances, the USCIS will review your application. In their discretion, they will decide whether your financial records, show that you're able to financially support your relative who is immigrating to the United States. Once the USCIS is satisfied with your responses, they will move your application to the next step. While this may seem like an arbitrary part of the process, the USCIS takes these matters quite seriously and if your relative happens to apply for and receive a public benefit, they will not think twice to pursue you in court for reimbursement of the funds.

Disclaimer: This blog post and similar posts are not to be considered as providing legal advice. The discussion here is meant for educational and informational purposes only and shall not create an attorney-client relationship with the readers of this content.