The Ten-Year Contract

The statute requires that the affidavit be LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE against the sponsor by the SPONSORED ALIEN, by the Federal Government, by any State or political subdivision, or by any other entity that provides a means-tested public benefit. The first of those is the one nobody expects. This is not a declaration of good intentions and it is not a formality in a packet: it is an undertaking the beneficiary personally holds against the signer.

The sponsor agrees to provide support to maintain the sponsored person at an annual income NOT LESS THAN 125 PERCENT of the Federal poverty line. The percentage is in the statute and does not move. What the percentage is applied TO does move — the poverty guidelines are re-issued every year and vary by household size — so the amount is looked up at the time, and no figure for it appears on this page.

The obligation is enforceable with respect to benefits provided BEFORE the sponsored person is naturalised as a citizen, or, if earlier, the termination date the statute provides — which is reached when they have worked forty qualifying quarters of coverage and did not receive a Federal means-tested public benefit during them. Forty quarters is about ten years of work. For a sponsored PARENT, who is typically past working age on arrival, that route is usually unavailable in practice, which leaves naturalisation or death as the realistic terminations.

The terminations the statute lists are naturalisation, the forty-quarters route, death, and departure with abandonment of permanent residence. A change in the family relationship is not among them. Somebody who sponsors a spouse and later divorces does not thereby stop being the sponsor, and this is the single most common and most costly misunderstanding of the document. Anyone in that position should get advice on their specific affidavit rather than assume the obligation followed the marriage.