New Form I-864 Required as of August 31, 2026, and USCIS May Now Request a Sponsor Credit Report: What Texas Green Card Sponsors and Families Can Ask a Lawyer to Review

What Changed, and When

The new edition, August 31, 2026. According to the USCIS alert on the Form I-864 page, the agency published a new edition of Form I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA, on August 31, 2026, with an edition date of 08/24/26. Because there is no grace period, USCIS stated that beginning August 31 it will accept only the 08/24/26 edition. The agency will accept the new edition if it is postmarked or electronically submitted on or after August 31, 2026, and it will not process or accept the prior 10/17/24 edition if it is postmarked or electronically submitted on or after that date. The American Immigration Lawyers Association reported that the related Forms I-864A, Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member, and I-864EZ, the short form for a single petitioning sponsor, were updated to the same 08/24/26 edition on the same terms.

The consumer-report release. The USCIS alert states that the 08/24/26 edition of Form I-864 “includes a privacy release that authorizes USCIS to request information from one or more consumer reporting agencies.” The alert adds that if a sponsor has a credit or security freeze on their consumer or credit report file, USCIS may not be able to access the information necessary to assess the sufficiency of the affidavit, and that to avoid delays a sponsor should respond promptly to any request to release a freeze.

What USCIS has not said. As Boundless Immigration reported on September 2, USCIS has not announced a minimum credit score, has not said that a lower score disqualifies a sponsor, and has not explained whether or how it will weigh late payments, debt levels, collections, bankruptcies, fraud alerts or identity-theft indicators that commonly appear in consumer reports. The same report noted that accounts of credit checks had begun appearing on social media and immigration forums, and that USCIS had not confirmed how widely it is using the new authority.

The sponsor obligation reminder. The same USCIS page carries a second alert reminding people who have signed Form I-864 that it is a legally binding contract with the U.S. government to financially support the sponsored immigrant. If the sponsored immigrant receives means-tested public benefits, the agency that paid the benefit can request repayment from the sponsor and, if the sponsor does not repay, may sue the sponsor for the cost of the benefits, legal fees and associated costs. That obligation is not new; USCIS restated it alongside the new edition.

Who in Texas This Reaches

Form I-864 is used by most family-based immigrants and some employment-based immigrants to show that they have adequate means of financial support and are not likely to rely on the government, according to USCIS. The DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics reports that immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, the spouses, parents and minor children who nearly always need an affidavit of support, have been the largest single category of new lawful permanent residents for the past decade, and Texas is consistently among the top states of residence for new green card holders. In practical terms the new edition reaches:

• U.S. citizens and green card holders in Texas who are petitioning for a spouse, parent, child or sibling, whether the relative is adjusting status inside the United States with Form I-485 or completing an immigrant visa abroad through the National Visa Center, which also collects Form I-864 for consular cases.
• Joint sponsors, the relatives, friends and employers who agree to sign a second Form I-864 when the petitioner’s own income does not meet the guideline. A joint sponsor signs the same contract and, under the new edition, gives the same consumer-report release.
• Household members who complete Form I-864A so that their income can be combined with the sponsor’s, since that form was updated on the same terms.
• Intending immigrants whose packets were assembled before August 31 and are in the mail or waiting to be filed, in Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo and every other part of the state. A packet that contains the 10/17/24 edition and is postmarked on or after August 31 is, by the terms of the alert, not accepted.
• Sponsors who have placed a credit or security freeze, a step many people took after data breaches. USCIS has said that with a freeze in place it may be unable to obtain the report, and that this may cause delay.

What This Changes Legally

• The form edition is a filing requirement, not a formality. USCIS rejects filings that use an outdated edition when the agency has stated it will accept only the new one. A rejected packet is returned, and the receipt date it would have earned is lost until a corrected packet is accepted. The edition date appears at the bottom of each page of the form.
• Signing the new edition authorizes a consumer-report request. The 08/24/26 edition includes the privacy release; a sponsor who signs it is consenting to that request. USCIS has described the release, but it has not published a standard for how the information affects a decision.
• The income and asset requirements did not change. The statutory requirement that a sponsor demonstrate the means to maintain the sponsored immigrant at 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, or 100 percent for certain active-duty military sponsors, comes from Section 213A of the Immigration and Nationality Act and is unchanged by a form edition. The new release adds a source of information; it does not announce a new financial threshold.
• The sponsor contract is the same contract. Under Section 213A, the sponsor’s support obligation continues until the sponsored immigrant becomes a U.S. citizen, is credited with 40 qualifying quarters of work, permanently leaves the United States, or dies, and a sponsor can be sued for reimbursement of means-tested public benefits the immigrant receives. USCIS restated that on August 31.
• Consumer-report law still applies to the report itself. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer is entitled to a free copy of their report from each nationwide bureau through AnnualCreditReport.com and may dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the bureau, which must investigate. Whether a particular item on a sponsor’s report is accurate, and what to do if it is not, is a question that turns on the sponsor’s own records.
• A related deadline is approaching. A separate USCIS policy change on public charge takes effect on September 18, 2026; it concerns the benefits an adjudicator may consider about the intending immigrant, not the sponsor’s credit, and is covered in our post on the public charge rule effective September 18. The two changes reach many of the same Texas families in the same month.

None of this determines any individual case. Whether a given filing uses the right edition, whether a sponsor’s income and assets are sufficient, and what a consumer report could mean for a particular application are questions that turn on the family’s facts and documents.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

This page is information, not legal advice, and no article can tell a reader whether their sponsor qualifies or what USCIS will decide. What a lawyer can review includes:

• For a family about to file, or with a packet already in the mail: an immigration lawyer can check which edition of Forms I-864, I-864A and I-864EZ the packet contains, confirm the postmark or submission date against the August 31 cutoff, and explain what happens if a filing is rejected and refiled.
• For a sponsor who is unsure whether their income is enough: a lawyer can review the tax returns, pay records and assets the form asks for, explain how the poverty-guideline calculation works for the household size, and describe when a joint sponsor or a household member on Form I-864A is used.
• For a sponsor with a credit freeze, a past bankruptcy, collections or a thin credit file: a lawyer can explain what USCIS has actually said about consumer reports, which is limited, and help the sponsor decide how to respond if USCIS asks for a freeze to be lifted or sends a request for evidence.
• For a sponsor who finds errors or unfamiliar accounts on their credit report: a consumer protection lawyer can review whether a dispute under the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies and how to document it, so that the record USCIS may request reflects the sponsor’s actual history.
• For a joint sponsor weighing whether to sign: a lawyer can explain, in plain terms, what the Section 213A contract obligates the signer to do, how long it lasts, and what the consumer-report release covers, before the signature goes on the page.
• For an intending immigrant whose case has been delayed or received a request for evidence: an immigration lawyer can review the notice, identify what USCIS is asking for, and explain the response deadline and the options that may exist.
• For a family planning ahead: a lawyer can review the whole filing, including the public charge change taking effect September 18, so the family understands both changes together. A lawyer’s office is the place for that conversation; intake belongs with the attorney, not with an article.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The cutoff has already passed: any Form I-864 postmarked or submitted on or after August 31, 2026 must be the 08/24/26 edition, and a packet that is rejected for an outdated form has to be corrected and resubmitted, which costs time and can affect filing dates. USCIS has said that a credit freeze may hold up its review and that sponsors should respond promptly when asked to lift one, so a sponsor who does not know whether a freeze is in place has something concrete to check. Guidance on how consumer-report information will be used has not been published, and the public charge change on September 18 lands on many of the same families within weeks. Requests for evidence carry response deadlines that start when the notice is issued, not when a lawyer is found. It is best to talk with a lawyer early, while the widest range of options is still open.

Sources

1. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA, alert dated August 31, 2026 (primary document: the 08/24/26 edition, the no-grace-period rule, the consumer-report privacy release, the credit-freeze notice and the sponsor-obligation reminder). Archived as AILA Doc. No. 26083102 (posted August 31, 2026), which also reports the parallel updates to Forms I-864A and I-864EZ.
2. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Affidavit of Support (who must file, the sponsor contract under Section 213A of the INA, when the obligation ends).
3. Boundless Immigration, USCIS Can Now Request Credit Reports From Green Card Sponsors (September 2, 2026) (what USCIS has and has not said about credit scores, freezes and reported checks).
4. Boundless Immigration, This Week in Immigration: September 4, 2026.
5. DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, Lawful Permanent Residents Annual Flow Reports (immediate relatives as the largest category of new lawful permanent residents; state of residence tables).
6. AnnualCreditReport.com (the website authorized by federal law for free consumer credit reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act).