By signing the Form I-864, the sponsor promises to ensure you have income at or about 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines - roughly $1,226 for a household of one. If your monthly income is below that amount, the sponsor is required to make up the difference. So - for example - if you earned $1,000 for a given, month, the sponsor would owe you $226.

So how do actually get financial compensation from the sponsor? Most basically, these cases proceed in four steps.

A federal district court has issued a ruling that is very helpful to I-864 beneficiaries who turn to federal courts to enforce their rights. Hats off to Devon Slovensky for her great work on this case. There are generally two ways to "get into" federal court. One is if you have a defendant and a plaintiff from different states - called "diversity" jurisdiction. The second is if you are suing on a federal law basis, called "federal question" jurisdiction. People are often surprised to learn at some judges are unsure whether I-864 claims qualify as federal law claims. That's seems somewhat odd, since a federal statute creates the Form I-864 and gives beneficiaries the right to sue.

Thanks to everyone who joined us yesterday for our webinar on enforcing the Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. This page contains written material for the program, along with a recording of the presentation.