Affidavit of Support Income Calculator (Form I-864, 2026)

How the I-864 income requirement is worked out

The figure a sponsor has to meet is not a single national number. It comes from Form I-864P, the poverty-guideline table USCIS publishes for affidavits of support, and it depends on two things: how many people are in the sponsor’s household as the form counts them, and which column applies. The edition used here is in force for 1 March 2026 – 28 February 2027.

Step 1 — household size, counted the way Part 5 counts it

Part 5 of Form I-864 adds seven items and 8 CFR 213a.1 lays down one master rule: no individual is counted more than once. The sponsor is always exactly one. The sponsor’s spouse is counted unless the spouse is the person being sponsored — the most common error on the form, and the one that turns a household of two into a household of three and the requirement from $27,050 into $34,150. Children under 21, anyone claimed as a dependent on the most recent federal return, and immigrants previously sponsored on an I-864 whose obligation has not ended all count, wherever they live.

Step 2 — 125%, or 100% for one specific military case

Most sponsors are measured at 125% of the poverty guidelines. The 100% column applies only where the sponsor is on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, other than active duty for training, and the intending immigrant is that sponsor’s own spouse or child. For a household of four in the contiguous states that is the difference between $41,250 and $33,000. Above household size eight, the published increment is added for each additional person — $7,100 in the contiguous states — which is exactly what the form instructs.

Step 3 — income, and Step 4 — assets when income falls short

Household income is the sponsor’s total income line from the most recent federal return, plus the income of anyone counted in the household who has signed Form I-864A. Only U.S. federal returns count. Meeting the figure exactly is enough — the test is “meets or exceeds”. Where income falls short, assets are counted at five times the gap, three times for the spouse or adult child of a U.S. citizen, and once for the orphan case that acquires citizenship under INA 320. Only net value counts, and only assets that can be converted to cash within a year without considerable hardship.

Counting a household member’s income cuts both ways: that person must also be added to the household size, which raises the requirement. A sponsor who adds a relative earning enough to clear the old figure may find the new figure has moved as well — the calculator re-runs both sides rather than only adding the income.

Which edition applies, and when this one expires

The controlling table is the one in effect when the intending immigrant filed the application for an immigrant visa or adjustment of status, not the date the affidavit is signed. This edition took effect on 1 March 2026 and is superseded on 1 March 2027. It derives from the HHS poverty guidelines published on 15 January 2026 (91 FR 1797, FR Doc. 2026-00755); 8 CFR 213a.1 delays USCIS adoption to the first day of the second month after publication, which is why the January HHS figures and the I-864 figures disagree for six weeks every year.