Public Assistance and Green Card Eligibility

An individual is ineligible to obtain permanent resident status if at the time of the application for admission or adjustment of status, he/she is likely at any time to become a public charge.

Recently, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued guidance on who can be considered a public charge.

A person is a public charge if by reason of poverty, insanity, disease or disability, he/she is “likely to become permanently dependent on the government for subsistence as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense.”

In determining whether an individual is a public charge, the USCIS considers the totality of circumstances. Factors that are taken into consideration include age, health, family status, assets, resources and financial status, and education and skills. The determination is made on a case by case basis.

Cash assistance benefits for income maintenance are relevant factors for public charge purposes, but mere receipt of such benefits does not automatically make the recipient a public charge.

Cash assistance includes Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and state and local cash assistance programs also called “General Assistance.”

Receipt of Medicaid along with other factors can make an individual inadmissible if Medicaid is used for long term care, but it is not a factor if it is used only for short-term institutionalization for rehabilitation.

It is also not a relevant factor if Medicaid is used merely for immunization, for treatment of symptoms of communicable disease, or for pre-natal care or emergency medical services.

Non-cash benefits and special purpose cash benefits that are not used for income maintenance are not subject to public charge consideration. Examples of these benefits are Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), nutrition programs such as food stamps, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, and other supplemental and emergency food assistance programs.

Other examples are housing benefits, child care services, emergency assistance, emergency disaster relief, foster care and adoption assistance, educational assistance, job training program in kind community-based programs, cash payments that have been earned such as Title II social security, government pension, veterans benefits, and unemployment compensation.

An I-864 Affidavit of Support that is legally significant would overcome the public charge inadmissibility ground. But public charge concerns may still exist if an applicant has personal characteristics such as chronic illness, physical or mental handicap, extreme age or other serious conditions which would lead to a determination that the sponsor would not have the considerable resources required to support the applicant.