Family-Based Immigration Petitions: Affidavit of Support and Priority

To sponsor a relative for a green card, you must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, you can only petition for family members the statute names, and you have to sign a legally enforceable promise to support that person financially. Family-based immigration sponsorship requirements come down to three questions: who you are, who you’re sponsoring, and whether your income can carry the household. The petition itself is filed on Form I-130, but the harder commitment is the Affidavit of Support on Form I-864, which follows the immigrant for years after they arrive.

Who Is Allowed to Sponsor a Relative

Only two groups can file a family-based petition: U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. Neither group can sponsor every relative. The statute divides qualifying family members into two tracks, and which track applies controls how long the case will take and, in some situations, whether it can proceed at all.

If You Are a U.S. Citizen

A U.S. citizen can sponsor a spouse, an unmarried child under 21, a parent, an unmarried adult son or daughter, a married son or daughter, and a brother or sister. To sponsor a parent or a sibling, the citizen must be at least 21 years old.¹

Spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of citizens are classified as immediate relatives. There is no annual cap on visas in this category, so a visa is available as soon as the petition and supporting paperwork are complete. Every other citizen-sponsored relationship falls into a preference category subject to numerical limits.

The surviving spouse of a deceased U.S. citizen can also self-petition as an immediate relative, provided the spouse files within two years of the citizen’s death and does not remarry before obtaining status.¹

If You Are a Lawful Permanent Resident

A lawful permanent resident can sponsor only two categories of relatives: a spouse or unmarried child under 21 (family second preference A, or F2A), and an unmarried adult son or daughter (F2B). Permanent residents cannot sponsor parents, married children, or siblings. If a permanent resident later naturalizes, a pending petition can be upgraded to a faster category: a spouse or minor child moves from F2A into the immediate relative track and skips the visa backlog entirely, and an adult unmarried child moves from F2B to F1.

The Preference Categories in Full

Every family relationship that is not an immediate relative sits in one of four preference categories, each with its own annual visa allocation:

F1: unmarried adult sons and daughters (21 and older) of U.S. citizens.
F2A: spouses and unmarried children under 21 of lawful permanent residents.
F2B: unmarried adult sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents.
F3: married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens.
F4: brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens where the citizen is at least 21.²

The caps produce waits that can stretch from a few years to well over a decade, depending on category and the beneficiary’s country of birth. F2A tends to move faster; F4 for siblings often runs past 15 years for applicants from high-demand countries. If you are eligible to naturalize and your relative sits in F2B, upgrading through citizenship is often the single biggest thing you can do to shorten the wait.

Filing the Petition and Proving the Relationship

Sponsorship formally starts with Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative.³ The petition does not by itself grant your relative any right to live or work in the United States. It asks USCIS to recognize the family relationship so the beneficiary can eventually apply for the green card.

You provide biographical information for yourself and the beneficiary, including full names, dates of birth, and addresses. Any prior marriages, for either party, must be disclosed. USCIS uses that history to confirm that a current marriage is valid and that earlier ones ended in divorce, annulment, or death.

Documents That Prove Your Status

The petition must include proof that you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Acceptable evidence includes a birth certificate, U.S. passport, naturalization certificate, or green card.

Documents That Prove the Relationship

What you file to prove the family tie depends on the relationship. A birth certificate establishes a parent-child link, an adoption decree covers adopted children, and a marriage certificate proves a spousal relationship. Foreign-language documents must be accompanied by a certified English translation, and the translator must sign a statement attesting that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate the language.⁴ Certified translations for standard documents like birth and marriage certificates typically run $25 to $40 per page.

Spousal petitions face the heaviest scrutiny because marriage fraud is the most common form of immigration fraud USCIS encounters. Plan to submit joint financial documents like bank statements and tax returns, a shared lease or mortgage, insurance policies naming each other as beneficiaries, and photographs together over time. Affidavits from people who know the couple help fill gaps.

Fees and What You Get Back

USCIS accepts the I-130 online or by mail. The fee varies by submission method, and the agency adjusts its schedule periodically, so check the current amount on the USCIS fee calculator before filing.³ Paper filings require payment by credit card, debit card, or direct bank transfer; USCIS no longer accepts personal checks or money orders for paper-filed forms unless you qualify for an exemption. Once USCIS accepts the filing, it sends Form I-797C, Notice of Action, with the receipt number you’ll use to track the case.⁵ A receipt is not an approval; it just confirms USCIS has the file.

The Financial Commitment: Affidavit of Support

Every family-based sponsor must sign Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. It is a contract with the U.S. government, and it is legally enforceable.⁶ By signing, you commit to supporting the immigrant so they do not need to rely on public benefits. Both the government and the sponsored immigrant can sue a sponsor who fails to provide adequate support.

The Income Threshold

Household income must equal at least 125% of the federal poverty guidelines for your household size. For 2026 in the 48 contiguous states, that means at least $27,050 for a household of two, $34,150 for three, and $41,250 for four.⁷ The thresholds are higher in Alaska and Hawaii. Active-duty U.S. military members sponsoring a spouse or child need only meet 100% of the guidelines rather than 125%.⁸

Household size counts the sponsor, all dependents (including any not being sponsored), and the beneficiary. Each additional person raises the bar. Sponsors with large families, or those sponsoring multiple relatives in the same window, often miscount here and end up short on income.

Using Assets to Close a Gap

Assets can supplement income if they can be converted to cash within a year without severe hardship. The general rule is that qualifying assets must equal at least five times the shortfall between your income and the required threshold. If you earn $22,050 and need $27,050, the $5,000 gap requires $25,000 in qualifying assets. When a U.S. citizen is sponsoring a spouse or a child aged 18 or older, the multiplier drops to three times the gap.⁸

Savings, stocks, and net home equity (appraised value minus mortgage balance) all qualify. A vehicle can count only if you own more than one and exclude at least one from the calculation.

When You Need a Joint Sponsor

If income and assets together still fall short, a joint sponsor can sign a separate I-864. The joint sponsor must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, must independently meet the income threshold for their own household size (which will now include the beneficiary), and accepts the same legal liability as the primary sponsor. The primary sponsor still signs; the joint sponsor is an addition, not a substitute.

How Long the Obligation Lasts

The support obligation ends when the sponsored immigrant naturalizes as a U.S. citizen, or earns credit for 40 qualifying quarters of work under Social Security (roughly ten years of employment), whichever comes first.⁹ Divorce does not end it. If you sponsor a spouse and the marriage ends a year later, you remain financially responsible until one of those two triggering events occurs. This surprises many sponsors and is worth understanding before you sign.

Proving Your Income

You’ll submit your most recent federal tax return along with W-2s or 1099s, and recent pay stubs to show current earnings. The numbers on the I-864 must match your tax documents exactly. Mismatches trigger a Request for Evidence and can delay the case by months. Self-employed sponsors should include the full Schedule C and any relevant business records.

Public Charge and Why the Affidavit Matters

Immigration officers evaluate whether a green card applicant is likely to become a “public charge,” meaning primarily dependent on the government for support. As of 2026, the standard in effect considers only two types of benefits: cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term institutionalization at government expense.¹⁰ Non-cash benefits like Medicaid, food assistance, and housing subsidies are not counted under the current framework. A proposed rule published in November 2025 would broaden that standard to allow officers to consider any means-tested public benefit, but as of mid-2026 the proposal has not been finalized.

The Affidavit of Support is the primary way sponsors overcome a public charge concern. A sponsor who clearly meets the income requirements gives the government strong evidence that the beneficiary will not need government assistance.

Priority Dates: What Sets Your Timeline

When USCIS receives a preference-category petition, it assigns a priority date, usually the day the I-130 was filed. That date is the beneficiary’s place in line. The beneficiary cannot apply for the green card until a visa number becomes available for their category and country of birth.

The Department of State publishes a monthly Visa Bulletin showing cutoff dates. When your priority date is earlier than the cutoff, the case can move to the next stage.¹¹ For immediate relatives, no cutoff applies; a number is always available. For everyone else, checking the Visa Bulletin every month is how you know when to act.

Protecting a Child From Aging Out

A child who turns 21 during a long wait can lose eligibility as an immediate relative or F2A beneficiary and slide into a slower adult category. The Child Status Protection Act adjusts how age is calculated to prevent this. For immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, the child’s age is frozen on the date the I-130 is filed, so as long as the child was under 21 at filing and remains unmarried, aging out is not an issue.¹²

In the preference categories, the formula subtracts the days the petition was pending from the child’s age when a visa becomes available. If the resulting “CSPA age” is under 21, the classification holds. But the beneficiary must take a concrete step toward permanent residence within one year of visa availability, such as filing a green card application or the immigrant visa forms, or the protection is forfeited.¹²

What Sponsorship Does Not Do

Filing an I-130 does not give your relative any immigration status, work authorization, or right to enter the United States. Those come, if at all, from the later green card application. A pending petition also does not protect a relative already in the U.S. from removal if their current status expires.

Sponsorship also cannot rescue every case. A relative who entered the United States under the Visa Waiver Program generally cannot adjust status inside the country, because the terms of that program prohibit changing to permanent residence or extending a stay.¹³ In most such cases, the beneficiary will need to complete the process abroad through consular processing.

After the Petition Is Filed

Once the petition is on file, you can track its status online with the receipt number from your I-797C notice. USCIS treats a case as actively processing if within the last 60 days you received a notice, responded to a Request for Evidence, or received an online status update. If a case type is not listed on the processing time table, the agency’s target is a decision within six months, and you should wait that long before submitting a service request.¹⁴

If the beneficiary is in the U.S. in valid status and a visa is available, they may be able to file Form I-485 to adjust status without leaving the country. Immediate relatives can file the I-130 and I-485 together in a concurrent filing.¹⁵ Preference-category beneficiaries can file concurrently only if a visa is immediately available based on their priority date. If the beneficiary lives abroad, the approved petition is forwarded to the National Visa Center, which collects an immigrant visa application fee of $325 and an Affidavit of Support review fee of $120 before scheduling an interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate.¹⁶

Delays are common, and Requests for Evidence are the most frequent cause. Respond promptly and completely; a missed deadline or incomplete answer can end the case in denial.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1151 – Worldwide Level of Immigration
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
4
U.S. Department of State. Information About Translating Foreign Documents
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C, Notice of Action
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-864P, HHS Poverty Guidelines for Affidavit of Support
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-864 Instructions for Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1183a – Requirements for Sponsors Affidavit of Support
10
Federal Register. Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Availability and Priority Dates
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
13
U.S. Department of State. Visa Waiver Program
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Case Inquiry
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Concurrent Filing of Form I-485
16
U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services