Author: gmclawsen

How do I enforce my rights under the Form I-864, Affidavit of Support?

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.

Madrid v. Robinson: federal courts have subject matter jurisdiction on I-864 enforcement cases

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.

Immigration Financial Support – Using the I-864 to transition to self-sufficiency

This training will help advocates, law enforcement and other professionals identify clients/survivors who might be able to benefit from the Form I-864. Learn easy questions that can be added to your intake procedure to screen for potential eligibility. Learn to assess the scope of support to which an individual might be eligible, and what steps may be taken to enforce the support obligation.

Specific performance for I-864 obligation – Santana v. Hatch

In a December 13, 2016 order, an I-864 enforcement case in federal district court for the Western District of Wisconsin has been resolved. See Santana v. Hatch, No. 15-cv-89-wmc (W.D. Wisc. Dec. 13. 2016) (memo. op.). Following an April order granting partial summary judgment to the immigrant-plaintiff, the only remaining issues were a damages calculation and specific […]

Immigration Financial Support – Using the I-864 to trasition to self- sufficiency

We are proud to be offering this webinar in partnership with End Violence Against Women International. Our talk will be on February 16, 2017 at 10:00 PST. To register, please complete this short online form. The presentation will help advocates identify which of their clients might be able to recover immigration financial support under the Form I-864, Affidavit of support. For further community resources please visit our advocate’s resource page.

January Webinar

This month we are hosting a free webinar for domestic violence advocates and other allies serving our community. The training will be January 31, 2017 at noon Pacific Time – register here.  The presentation will help advocates identify which of their clients might be able to recover immigration financial support under the Form I-864, Affidavit […]

Can you get the signed I-864 with a FOIA?

As noted in our articles, the executed Form I-864 can be requested through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Other lawyers have reported that such requests have returned Forms I-864 that are either fully or partially redacted. That result is arguably consistent with protections of the U.S. sponsor’s personal information under the Privacy Act. In my experience, however, FOIAs submitted by the foreign national typically are returned with an unredacted copy of the I-864. Regardless of whether this is erroneous or not on the part of USCIS, FOIA requests have proved an expedient means of acquiring the signed contract.