Form I-864: the Affidavit of Support in United States immigration sponsorship

Find out about the Affidavit of Support (Form I-864) — the undertaking of financial support when sponsoring a United States green card, the income requirements and the sponsor’s obligations.

What is an Affidavit of Support?

An “Affidavit of Support” is a signed document accepting financial responsibility for a family member applying for agreen card. This document is also known as United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Form I-864.

For simplicity, the person signing this Affidavit of Support will be referred to as the “financial sponsor”. This is usually (but not always) the same person as the sponsoring family member.

DownloadForm I-864.

Form I-864 processing times

Form I-864 processing times are currently around 8.2 months, but will vary depending on the particular situation. Note that Form I-864 is filed as part of the family-based green card case, so the processing time is the length of time it takes for the green card case to be approved.

AOS financial requirements

The following is a brief summary of the financial requirements:

• The financial sponsor must be a United States citizen or a United States green card holder, at least 18 years old, and living in the United States.
• The financial sponsor must have an annual income of at least 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. The more people in the household, the higher the income needed to meet the requirements. The sponsor will need to file Form I-864P, which is used to determine the minimum income needed to file Form I-864 (the Affidavit of Support).
• The financial sponsor may also use assets (not only income) to meet these requirements. Assets include cash, stocks and bonds, and real property (for example, a home).
• It is possible to have a household member or even a non-family member help meet the income or asset requirements, where the sponsoring spouse cannot meet them alone.
• The spouse applying for the green card (the “beneficiary”) may also use their own income to meet the financial requirements, but only where this income will continue from the same source after the green card is granted.

AOS financial obligations

The Affidavit of Support is essentially a contract between the financial sponsor and the United States government. The government has the right to recover from the financial sponsor certain public benefits (such as Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF) that their spouse uses after receiving the green card. See the website ofUnited States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)for the list of public benefits that must be reimbursed (“Benefits Subject to Public Charge Consideration”) and those that need not be.

A financial sponsor’s obligations under an Affidavit of Support end only when one of the following four things happens:

• Either spouse dies.
• The spouse applying for the green card becomes a United States citizen.
• The spouse applying for the green card has worked 40 quarters in the United States.
• The spouse applying for the green card moves out of the United States permanently.

For those who have previously been a financial sponsor for someone else (as the main sponsor or a joint sponsor), everyone they have sponsored in the past will need to be counted when preparing to file a new Affidavit of Support — unless one of the events mentioned above has occurred and their obligation to that person has ended.

Look up information on Form I-864 on the government website athere.