How to Write an Affidavit for USCIS: Contents, Signing, and Perjury

To write an affidavit for USCIS, put a sworn first-person statement of facts you personally witnessed into numbered paragraphs, include your identifying information and your relationship to the applicant, and close with the penalty-of-perjury declaration set out in 28 U.S.C. § 1746. The document does not usually need a notary, but it does need specificity: vague affidavits are the ones officers discount.

When an Affidavit Is the Right Document

Affidavits are secondary evidence. USCIS looks first for a primary record (a birth certificate, a marriage certificate) and then for other secondary documents like church, school, or hospital records. Affidavits come in when those are unavailable, and you generally need at least two, from different people with independent knowledge of the same facts.¹

Some case types use affidavits differently. In a marriage-based petition, friends and relatives submit affidavits to describe a genuine relationship even when documents are not missing. In asylum cases, affidavits describe persecution or country conditions the affiant personally knows about. In those situations the affidavit supplements the record rather than filling a hole in it.

Who Can Serve as the Affiant

The affiant needs direct personal knowledge of what they are describing. “My cousin told me they were married” is hearsay. “I attended their wedding on June 14, 2022, at St. Mary’s Church in Chicago” is personal knowledge. Hearsay will not help the case.

USCIS also expects the affiant not to be a party to the underlying petition, so the petitioner and beneficiary cannot write affidavits supporting their own case. Relatives can be affiants, and affiants do not have to be U.S. citizens.¹

What Every Affidavit Must Contain

Missing any of these elements gives an officer a reason to give the affidavit less weight:

The affiant’s full legal name, address, and contact information.
The affiant’s date and place of birth.
The affiant’s relationship to the applicant (friend, coworker, neighbor, relative).
Full information about the facts at issue: the events, dates, and circumstances being attested to.
How the affiant gained personal knowledge of those facts, not just what happened but why they were in a position to know.
A photocopy of government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license or passport, when available.

These elements come from USCIS’s own guidance and apply across case types.¹ In a marriage case, add specific interactions you have observed between the couple. In an asylum case, add specific conditions or events you personally know about in the applicant’s home country.

How to Structure the Document

Center a title at the top: AFFIDAVIT OF [FULL NAME]. Open with a paragraph that introduces the affiant, gives the address, and states that the affiant is at least 18 and competent to make the statement.

Put the substance in numbered paragraphs, one fact or event per paragraph. Numbering matters because officers reference specific statements during interviews and in written decisions, and a wall of prose is harder to work with. Chronological order usually reads best. If the affidavit is about a couple, start with when and how the affiant first met them and move forward from there.

Writing Facts That Carry Weight

The weakest affidavits are the vague ones. “I know they are a real couple” tells an officer nothing. This does:

I had dinner at their apartment on March 8, 2024, and they prepared the meal together. Their son’s drawings were on the refrigerator, and they discussed upcoming plans to visit her parents in Guadalajara.

Write in first person throughout. Every sentence should describe something the affiant saw, heard, or experienced. Use specific dates, addresses, and names wherever possible. If the exact date is gone, narrow the window: “spring of 2023” is better than “a while back.”

Keep the tone plain. The affiant is reporting facts, not arguing the case. Skip opinions about immigration policy, legal conclusions, and pleas about what the applicant deserves. “I have observed them living together continuously since 2021 and sharing financial responsibilities” is useful. “They deserve to stay in this country” is not the affiant’s call.

Do not template. When multiple affidavits arrive with the same phrasing, officers notice, and it undermines every affidavit in the stack. Each affiant should write in their own words about their own experiences, even when they describe overlapping events.

The Penalty-of-Perjury Closing

Every affidavit for USCIS ends with a declaration under 28 U.S.C. § 1746. That statute lets an unsworn written declaration carry the same legal force as a notarized oath, but the language has to be substantially in the form the statute sets out.²

If the affiant signs inside the United States:

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on [date]. [Signature]

If the affiant signs outside the United States, add the reference to U.S. law:

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on [date]. [Signature]

The correct verb is “declare,” not “swear.” Do not tack on “to the best of my knowledge and belief”; it is unnecessary and implies uncertainty, which weakens the statement.

Signing, Notarization, and Translation

Because § 1746 exists, most affidavits for USCIS do not need a notary. A signed declaration under penalty of perjury has the same legal weight. Check the instructions for the specific form being filed, though, because some forms or filings do require notarization. If notarization is used, the affiant signs in front of a notary who checks ID and witnesses the signature; the notary does not verify that the statements are true.

USCIS requires a handwritten signature on the underlying document. A photocopy, scan, or fax of that signed original is fine, but signatures produced by typewriter, word processor, stamp, or auto-pen are not accepted. Electronic signatures are allowed for benefit requests filed through the USCIS online system, following the instructions for that form.³

If the affidavit is written in a language other than English, submit the original along with a full English translation. The translator must certify that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from that language into English, and the certification must include the translator’s signature, printed name, date of signature, and contact information.⁴ The translator does not have to be a professional, but professional translators reduce the risk of errors and later challenges.

What Happens If the Affidavit Is False

The penalty-of-perjury language at the bottom is not decorative. It makes real consequences enforceable against the affiant and the applicant.

For the applicant, fraud or willful misrepresentation of a material fact to obtain an immigration benefit triggers permanent inadmissibility to the United States, lifted only by a waiver that is hard to get.⁵ This bar can apply even when someone else drafted the false statement.

For the affiant, a false statement under oath in an immigration application or affidavit can carry up to 10 years in prison for a first or second offense and up to 15 years for later offenses.⁶ A separate general federal statute makes it a crime to knowingly submit a materially false statement to any federal agency, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.⁷

A short affidavit that only reports what the affiant actually knows is always safer than a longer one that reaches. Stick to firsthand facts, describe them concretely, and let the record speak for itself.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part A Chapter 4 – Documentation
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1746 Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1 Part B Chapter 2 – Signatures
4
eCFR. 8 CFR 103.2 Submission and Adjudication of Benefit Requests
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 Inadmissible Aliens
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1546 Fraud and Misuse of Visas, Permits, and Other Documents
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1001 Statements or Entries Generally