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If you are bringing a relative to live permanently in the United States, you must accept legal responsibility for financially supporting this family member. You accept this responsibility and become your relative's sponsor by completing and signing a document called an affidavit of support. This legally enforceable responsibility lasts until your relative becomes a U.S. citizen or can be credited with 40 quarters of work (usually 10 years.)

For Whom is an Affidavit of Support Required?

You must complete and submit an affidavit of support, if you are bringing a relative to the United States. An affidavit of support is required for all immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (which include parents, spouses, and unmarried children under the age of 21, including orphans) and relatives who qualify for immigration to the United States under one of the family-based preferences:

• First Preference: Unmarried, adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. Adult means 21 years of age or older.

• Second Preference: Spouses of lawful permanent residents and the unmarried sons and daughters (regardless of age) of lawful permanent residents and their unmarried children.

• Third Preference: Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, their spouses and their unmarried minor children.

• Fourth Preference: Brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens, their spouses and their unmarried minor children.

You must also complete an affidavit of support if you are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident and filed an employment-based immigration petition for a relative or if you have a significant ownership interest (5 percent or more) in a business that filed an employment-based immigrant petition for your relative.

Persons whom USCIS has approved as self-petitioning widows or widowers or battered spouses and children are exempt from this requirement. Relatives who enter as refugees or asylees also do not require affidavits of support.

All relatives for whom you file a separate I-130 or I-140 petition must have an original affidavit of support and accompanying documentation. You may submit photocopies of the affidavit of support you complete for your relative for any spouse or children immigrating with your relative and listed on the petition. You do not need to photocopy the accompanying documentation for these family members.

Other types of aliens, including parolees, students, and diversity immigrants are sponsored using Form I-864. A different affidavit of support is used for these aliens if an immigration or consular officer requires it.

Are there any exceptions to the sponsorship requirements?

There is no need to submit a Form I-864 if the intending immigrant can show EITHER that the intending immigrant has already worked, or can be credited with, 40 qualifying quarters as defined in title II of the Social Security Act OR that the intending immigrant is the child of a citizen and that the intending immigrant, if admitted for permanent residence on or after February 27, 2001, would automatically acquire citizenship under § 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by the Child Citizenship Act of 2000.

It is important to note that, in calculating the qualifying quarters that may be credited to an intending immigrant, the intending immigrant may not count any qualifying quarters worked during any period after December 31, 1996, in which the person who claims to have worked the qualifying quarters received a Federal means-tested public benefit.

Who is Required to Be a Sponsor?

If you filed an immigrant visa petition for your relative, you must be the sponsor. You must also be at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident. You must have a domicile in the United States or a territory or possession of the United States. Usually, this requirement means you must actually live in the United States, or a territory or possession, in order to be a sponsor. If you live abroad, you may still be eligible to be a sponsor if you can show that your residence abroad is temporary, so that you still have your domicile in the United States.

Can anyone else be a sponsor?

INA section 213A permits both a "joint sponsor" and a "substitute sponsor" in certain cases.

Who can be a joint sponsor, and when is a joint sponsor allowed?

If the visa petitioner's household income is not sufficient to meet the requirements of INA section 213A and 8 C.F.R. § 213a, INA section 213A permits a joint sponsor to sign an affidavit of support, in addition to the affidavit of support signed by the visa petitioner. A joint sponsor is someone who is willing to accept legal responsibility for supporting your family member with you. A joint sponsor must meet all the same requirements as you, except the joint sponsor does not need to be related to the immigrant. The joint sponsor (or the joint sponsor and his or her household) must reach the 125 percent income requirement alone. You cannot combine your income with that of a joint sponsor to meet the income requirement.

When is a substitute sponsor allowed, and who can be a substitute sponsor?

There can be a substitute sponsor if:

• the Service approved an immediate relative or family-based immigrant visa petition on behalf of an alien;

• after the Service did so, the visa petitioner died; and

• the Service has determined, in the exercise of discretion, that humanitarian factors make it prudent not to revoke approval of the visa petition.

The Service will also accept a substitute sponsor if the visa petitioner dies after the principal beneficiary of the visa petition has immigrated, in the case of an alien spouse or child seeking to follow to join the principal beneficiary after the visa petitioner's death.

To qualify as a substitute sponsor you must be a citizen or national, or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, at least 18 years of age, and domiciled in the United States. You must also be a qualifying relative, or the legal guardian, of the intending immigrant. The qualifying relatives include the intending immigrant's: spouse, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sibling, child (if at least 18 years of age), son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild. As a substitute sponsor, you must sign and complete the affidavit of support in place of the deceased petitioner. You must meet all of the same income requirements of a sponsor and you will also have all of the same responsibilities as a sponsor.

How Do I File an Affidavit of Support?

You should complete an I-864 Affidavit of Support when your relative has been scheduled for an immigrant visa interview with a consular officer overseas or when your relative is about to submit an application for adjustment to permanent resident status with USCIS or with an Immigration Court in the United States. If you have a joint sponsor, the joint sponsor must also complete USCIS Form I-864 at this time. If you are using the income of other household members to qualify, then each household member who is accepting legal responsibility for supporting your relative must complete a separate USCIS I-864A Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member.

The USCIS Forms I-864 and I-864A include instructions and a checklist for the supporting documents that you must include with the affidavit of support. It is important that you read the instructions carefully and submit all required documentation.

You are required to provide U.S. Federal income tax returns for the 3 most recent tax years as well as proof of current employment. If you were not required to file a tax return in any of these years you must provide an explanation. Failure to provide the tax returns or evidence establishing that you were not required to file will delay action on your relative's application for permanent residence and, if not provided, will result in denial of an immigrant visa or adjustment of status.

When you have completed the affidavit of support, compiled the necessary documentation, and had the affidavit notarized in the United States or before a U.S. consular or immigration officer, you should provide this packet of information to your relative to submit with his or her application for permanent resident status. If you are given specific instructions to file your affidavit of support directly with the National Visa Center, you should follow those instructions.

What are the income requirements for an Affidavit of Support?

You also must meet certain income requirements (whether you are a sponsor, a joint sponsor, or a substitute sponsor). You must show that your household income is equal to or higher than 125 percent of the U.S. poverty level for your household size (See Poverty Guidelines.) Your household size includes you, your dependents, any relatives living with you, and the immigrants you are sponsoring. For example, if you have a spouse and two children and you want to sponsor your brother and his wife, you must prove that your household income is equal to or higher than 125 percent of the U.S. poverty level for a family of six, or $30,325. You must also include in your household size any immigrants you have previously sponsored under this part of the law. In the above example, if you had previously sponsored your parents and your sister, your household size would be nine persons and you would need a household income of $41,875 ($38,025 + $3,850).

If you, the sponsor, are on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States, and the immigrant you are sponsoring is your spouse or child, your income only needs to equal 100 percent of the U.S. poverty level for your family size.

What are My Responsibilities as a Sponsor?

When you sign the Affidavit of Support, you accept legal responsibility for financially supporting the sponsored immigrant(s) until they become U.S. citizens or can be credited with 40 quarters of work. Any joint sponsors or household members whose income is used to meet the minimum income requirements are also legally responsible for financially supporting the sponsored immigrant. If the immigrant receives any "means-tested public benefits," you are responsible for repaying the cost of those benefits to the agency that provided them. If you do not repay the debt, the agency can sue you in court to get the money owed. When in doubt, ask the benefit provider whether the benefit is a "means-tested public benefit."

Currently, Federal means-tested public benefits include Food Stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the State Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). States and local jurisdictions may also designate certain of their programs as means-tested public benefits.

The following types of programs are not counted as means-tested public benefits: emergency Medicaid; short-term, non-cash emergency relief; services provided under the National School Lunch and Child Nutrition Acts; immunizations and testing and treatment for communicable diseases; student assistance under the Higher Education Act and the Public Health Service Act; certain forms of foster-care or adoption assistance under the Social Security Act; Head Start programs; means-tested programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; and Job Training Partnership Act programs.