Sponsoring an Immigrant for Lawful Permanent Residency

In many cases, an applicant for lawful permanent residency in the U.S. must have a financial sponsor. This sponsor must complete and sign Form I-864 (Affidavit of Support) which essentially obligates the sponsor to reimburse the government in the event that the sponsored immigrant accepts any public benefits such as welfare.

In order to qualify to sponsor the immigrant, the sponsor must have income in excess of the federal poverty guidelines for his or her household size. Fortunately, the federal poverty guidelines require income that is barely sufficient to support the indicated family sizes so it is a relatively low threshold.

The sponsor, in many cases, will be the person who filed the petition for the immigrant. However, if the petitioner does not have sufficient income to qualify he will need a co-sponsor.

In order to determine if you qualify to sponsor an immigrant you need to review the federal poverty guidelines. These guidelines change each year.