Section 213A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Section 213A) required the United
States Attorney General to develop a new, legally enforceable version of the affidavit
of support for the sponsor of an alien, form I-864. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began using the form on December
19, 1997, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uses it today. See SI 00502.215 for more information about the old and new version affidavits of support.
Section 213A also provided that when an alien sponsored under the new affidavit, receives
any payments under a means-tested public assistance program, i.e., Supplemental Security
Income (SSI), the sponsor who executed the legally enforceable affidavit of support
must repay to the agency that made the payments the amount of benefits the alien received.
A different set of deeming rules applies to aliens whose sponsors sign the new, legally
enforceable version of the affidavit. These cases are also known as “new version affidavit”
cases or “new version sponsor deeming” cases.
NOTE: Aliens whose sponsors sign the I-864 may be subject to Alien Deeming policy.
See also: