A “sponsor” is someone who agrees to provide financial assistance for an immigrant while they are in the United States. You don’t have to be related to your sponsor in order to have them help you out. You, as the sponsor, will be responsible for taking on specific duties on behalf of the sponsored immigrant. A sponsor ought to be in a position to help an immigrant financially if they are ever in need of it.
How to Sponsor an Immigrant Friend?
If your buddy wants to immigrate to the United States and obtain a green card, you cannot sponsor them directly. Those exceptions only apply to members of your immediate family. On the other hand, you may help your buddy immigrate to the United States by serving as a co-sponsor. If your acquaintance has an American citizen or green card holder relative in the United States, for instance, that relative can sponsor your friend’s immigration. On the other side, you might file Form I-864 to co-sponsor your friend’s application.
What Conditions Must Exist for You to Be Able to Act as an Immigration Sponsor?
There are several different ways in which you might become an immigration sponsor. They can be classified generally as:
Sponsors for applications based on familial relationships; Sponsors for applications based on a prospective spouse or partner’s work (the procedure varies depending on a number of criteria); and Sponsors for applications based on other circumstances. An affidavit of support, Form I-864, must be submitted by a sponsor in all cases. You may need to fill out either Form I-864 EZ or Form I-864A, depending on your specific circumstances. The USCIS will use the information you supply on the form to assess if you meet the requirements to be a sponsor.
Earnings Requirement for Sponsorship
To qualify as a sponsor, your annual income must be over a particular threshold. The standard bare minimum for financial viability is $22,000 per year. Based on the ASPE, this amount is determined to be at least 125% over the Federal poverty threshold. Also, keep in mind that this number shifts every year in response to adjustments in the poverty rate. The poverty threshold is set at 100 per cent for military people.
What Role You Play in Liability
There are responsibilities that come with being an immigration sponsor. Though it seems like a standard immigration form, Form-864 is essentially a binding contract between the sponsor, the immigrant, and the United States government. To provide a few instances:
The immigrant’s sponsor may be sued by the government for reimbursement of taxpayer-funded services provided to the foreign national.
The immigrant can file a lawsuit against the sponsor to recover the money needed to raise their standard of living to 12.5 times the federal poverty line. A divorce does not release the sponsor from legal responsibility for their immigrant spouse. When one partner consciously chooses not to look for a job, this might become problematic. Sponsors can explain the problem of spouses skipping work by signing a separate contract with their spouses. Sponsors who fail to meet their legal responsibilities in this country may be subject to substantial fines under current U.S. immigration law. Numerous sponsors have abandoned their responsibilities because they changed addresses without informing the USCIS. On the contrary, you might be fined anywhere from $300 to $2,000 if you fail to notify USCIS of any changes to your residence. Further, a sponsor can be fined up to $5,000 if they know that the immigrant they are supporting has received public subsidies.