A review of all I-864 enforcement cases filed in the federal court system shows that most claimants go to court without a lawyer. Out of all publicly available cases, 54% of plaintiffs tried to represent themselves. Do I-864 plaintiffs have…
The Trump administration recently announced changes to "public charge" inadmissibility. One of the major changes in U.S. immigration law is that some immigrants will not be required to post financial bonds as a pre-condition to getting green cards. Here's what…
Today the Department of Homeland Security announced the publication of its new rule on Public Charge inadmissibility. The initial notice of rulemaking was issued in October 2018. See this post for an in-depth analysis of the rule as originally proposed…
A recent case shows the risk when immigrants raise the Form I-864 in the context of family law proceedings. Once again, a family law court has enforced the Form I-864… but only sort of. CAN WE OR CAN’T WE RAISE…
On June 20, 2019 a judge for the Northern District of Alabama handed down a decision on the first I-864 litigation in that state (whether federal or state court). The order, Belevich v. Thomas, touches on a number of interesting…
Another U.S. federal court has ruled that Form I-864 sponsors cannot avoid liability by alleging that they were defrauded into signing the Form I-864. In Anderson v. USA, et al, Judge Robert Lasnik dismissed a long list of affirmative defenses…
The California Court of Appeals (First District) has handed down an extremely important decision affirming rights under the Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. The case decided is Kumar v. Kumar, A145181 (Cal. App. Div. II, July 28, 2017), available here. First, I…
The Form I-864, Affidavit of Support is signed in virtually all family-based immigration cases. If you became a lawful permanent resident (LPR) through a spouse, parent or child, chances are the Form I-864 was signed. By signing the Form I-864,…
The Form I-864, Affidavit of Support imposes serious financial obligations on a sponsor who signs the form. If you have signed and filed a Form I-864, can you withdraw the form if you change your mind? Under some circumstances, yes…
Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided an important case regarding enforcement of the Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. Erler v. Erler (3:12-cv-02793-CRB) gives the clearest rule of any circuit court to date on how to calculate household size…