Kumar

*1074 In this marital dissolution proceeding, an immigrant spouse seeks to enforce her contractual right to support based on the affidavit of *1075 support which her American spouse was required to submit to the federal government in connection with his petition to sponsor her for an immigration visa. As required by the terms of the affidavit of support, her American spouse promised to support her at an income of at least 125 percent of the federal poverty line for 10 years.

The issues raised in this appeal appear to be matters of first impression in California. 1 We hold that an immigrant spouse has standing to enforce the support obligation created by an I-864 affidavit in state court. We further hold that an immigrant spouse bringing such a claim has no duty to mitigate damages. Because the trial court's ruling in this matter conflicts with our holdings, we reverse. We remand to the trial court to consider the immigrant spouse's contract claim in accordance with this decision.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Vikash Kumar was born in Fiji and is now a United States citizen. Ashlyne Kumar is a citizen of Fiji. On September 22, 2012, Vikash, then 27 years old, and Ashlyne,…