An affidavit of support is a legally enforceable contract, and the sponsor’s responsibility usually lasts until the family member or other individual either becomes a U.S. citizen, or is credited with 40 quarters of work (usually 10 years).
The legislature occasionally skips outline levels.
For example:
(3) A person may apply [...]
(4)(a) A person petitioning for relief [...]
In this example, (3), (4),
and (4)(a) are all outline levels, but
(4) was
omitted by its authors. It's only implied. This presents an
interesting challenge when laying out the text. We've
decided to display a blank section with this note, in order
to aide readability.