Can I Sponsor a Friend to Immigrate to the USA?

You cannot directly sponsor a friend for a green card. U.S. immigration law limits green card petitions to qualifying family members and to employers sponsoring workers, and there is no visa category for friendship, no matter how long or close the relationship. What you can do is real and sometimes decisive: you can serve as a joint financial sponsor on someone else’s petition, back a temporary visa application, and help your friend pursue paths that don’t require a sponsor at all.

Why Friends Aren’t a Sponsorship Category

Two doors lead to a green card through sponsorship, and neither opens for a friend acting alone.

The family door is limited by relationship. U.S. citizens can petition for spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents as immediate relatives with no annual cap, and for adult children and siblings in capped preference categories that carry long backlogs. Lawful permanent residents can petition for spouses and unmarried children, but not for parents or siblings.¹ The sibling category alone can involve waits of over 20 years for applicants from high-demand countries.²

The employment door requires a U.S. employer. In most cases, that employer must first obtain a labor certification from the Department of Labor showing no qualified American worker is available,³ then file the immigrant petition with USCIS.⁴ You cannot file that petition for a friend.

The One Green Card Role a Friend Can Play: Joint Financial Sponsor

Here is what often gets missed. While you can’t file the immigration petition itself, you can serve as your friend’s joint financial sponsor once a qualifying family member has filed one. This is the most meaningful thing a friend can typically do in the green card process, and it comes up constantly, because petitioners often don’t earn enough on their own to meet the income requirement.

Every family-based green card applicant needs a financial sponsor who signs Form I-864, a legally binding affidavit of support. When the petitioner’s income falls short, a joint sponsor fills the gap. The joint sponsor does not need to be related to anyone involved. Any U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident who is at least 18 and living in the United States can serve, which includes a friend, coworker, or neighbor.⁵

The joint sponsor must meet the income threshold independently, without combining income with the primary petitioner. Up to two joint sponsors can participate, each covering some of the family members on the petition, and the primary petitioner still files their own I-864 even when a joint sponsor is involved.⁵

What You’re Signing Up For as a Joint Sponsor

An I-864 is a contract with the federal government, and a joint sponsor takes on the same legal obligations as the primary sponsor. Before agreeing, know the three pieces.

The Income You Have to Show

You must demonstrate household income at or above 125% of the federal poverty guidelines for your household size, counting yourself, your dependents, and the immigrants you’re sponsoring.⁶ Active-duty military members sponsoring a spouse or child only need to meet 100%.

For 2026, the 125% thresholds in the 48 contiguous states are:⁷

Household of 2: $27,050
Household of 3: $34,150
Household of 4: $41,250
Household of 5: $48,350
Household of 6: $55,450
Each additional person: add $7,100

Alaska and Hawaii have higher thresholds. If your income falls short, you can sometimes qualify by adding a household member’s income or by showing qualifying assets worth at least three times the gap between your income and the required threshold (five times for sponsoring a spouse or child of a citizen).

How Long the Obligation Lasts

The I-864 does not end when the immigrant gets a job, moves out, or stops speaking to you. It continues until one of these things happens:⁶

The sponsored immigrant becomes a U.S. citizen.
The immigrant earns 40 qualifying Social Security work quarters, roughly 10 years.
The immigrant loses permanent resident status and leaves the country permanently.
Either the sponsor or the immigrant dies.

Divorce, personal disagreements, and the immigrant falling out of status do not end the obligation. If you sign as a joint sponsor for a friend and the friendship sours five years later, you are still on the hook. And once the immigrant receives their green card, there is no mechanism to withdraw or cancel the affidavit. Your window to change your mind closes at approval.

Reimbursement for Public Benefits

If the immigrant you sponsored receives means-tested public benefits such as SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid, the agency that provided them can demand repayment from you. If you refuse, that agency or the immigrant can sue you in court.⁶ Joint sponsors carry the same exposure as primary sponsors. It’s real financial risk that can run a decade or more.

Helping a Friend With a Temporary Visa

Even without a family or employment tie, you can support a friend’s temporary visa application. The role depends on the visa.

Visitor Visas (B-1/B-2)

Your friend must apply for a visitor visa themselves. U.S. law doesn’t allow anyone to apply on a foreign national’s behalf.⁸ What you can do is write an invitation letter for them to include with their application, explaining who you are, your relationship, the purpose and length of the visit, and where they’ll stay. It’s supporting evidence, not a guarantee. The consular officer still evaluates whether the applicant has sufficient funds and ties pulling them home.

Student Visas (F-1/M-1)

For a student or short-term visitor, you can file Form I-134, Declaration of Financial Support, showing you can cover living expenses and tuition. The I-134 applies to B, F, and M nonimmigrant categories.⁹ Unlike the I-864, the I-134 is not a legally enforceable contract; the government and the visa holder cannot sue you to collect, and your obligation ends when the visitor’s authorized stay expires or they leave.¹⁰ The student still has to qualify on their own, including acceptance at an approved school.

Work Visas

H-1B and similar work visas require a U.S. employer to file the petition; an individual friend cannot.¹¹ The practical help you can offer is connecting your friend with employers who might sponsor them.

Paths Your Friend Can Take Without a Sponsor

If no qualifying relative or employer exists, two routes bypass sponsorship entirely.

Diversity Visa Lottery

Each year, the United States makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available through a random lottery to people from countries with historically low immigration rates to the U.S.¹² Your friend applies on their own during the annual registration window, and no sponsor is required. Odds are slim, not every country qualifies, and submitting more than one entry disqualifies the applicant.

EB-5 Investor Visa

The EB-5 program grants green cards to foreign nationals who invest in a U.S. commercial enterprise and create at least 10 full-time jobs for American workers.¹³ The standard minimum investment is $1,050,000, reduced to $800,000 for projects in targeted employment areas with high unemployment or rural locations. The USCIS filing fee for an EB-5 petition alone is $3,675.¹⁴ It requires substantial capital, but no family or employer relationship.

What About Humanitarian Parole Programs?

Between 2022 and early 2025, the federal government ran several humanitarian parole programs that let private individuals financially sponsor nationals from specific countries, including Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. These were unusual because a qualifying U.S.-based supporter could sponsor a beneficiary regardless of family or employment ties. As of mid-2025, those programs have been paused or terminated, no new applications are being accepted, and pending cases are no longer being processed. Whether similar private sponsorship programs will return is uncertain, and if they do, the rules and obligations could differ from earlier versions.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Family Preference Immigrants
2
USAGov. Family-Based Immigrant Visas and Sponsoring a Relative
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Permanent Labor Certification
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-864 Instructions for Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Affidavit of Support
7
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2026 Poverty Guidelines
8
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Inviting Someone to Visit the United States
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-134, Instructions for Declaration of Financial Support
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-134, Declaration of Financial Support
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-1B Specialty Occupations
12
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Instructions
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule