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admitted to the United States. A sponsor is one who has completed an affidavit of support, promising to provide
support and assistance to a non-citizen if necessary. Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), as amended, sponsors must:
1. Be U.S. citizens, nationals or lawful permanent residents;
2. Live in the U.S. or one of its territories or possessions; and
3. Demonstrate the means to maintain a gross annual household income of at least 125 percent of the federal
poverty line.
In addition to setting forth the requirements to qualify as a sponsor, PRWORA created a new affidavit of support
requirement (effective December 19, 1997) that affects the eligibility of certain legal immigrants to receive federal
means-tested public assistance.
PRWORA Affidavit of Support Requirement
Specifically, the new I-864 Affidavit requires agencies that provide means-tested public benefits to consider a
sponsor's income and the income of the sponsor's current spouse ("sponsor deeming") in determining a legal
alien's eligibility for the benefit. This means that sponsored immigrants who have executed the new I-864 Affidavit
on or after December 19, 1997 will be subject to the sponsor-to-alien deeming rules. While legal aliens were
eligible to receive public assistance on the same basis as U.S. citizens prior to the enactment of PRWORA, the new
sponsor-to-alien deeming rules will usually make a sponsored immigrant ineligible for means-tested public
benefits.
Furthermore, PRWORA denies many legal immigrants arriving after the date of enactment from receiving any
federal means-tested benefits at all for their first five years in the U.S. This means that deeming will not occur until
after the expiration of the five-year bar. Effectively, the new deeming rules did not have significant impact until
December 19, 2002 (five years after the effective date of the I-864 Affidavit). Legal aliens who are exempted from the
five-year bar include:
* Refugees
* Asylees
* Aliens whose deportation or removal is being withheld
* Amerasians
* Cuban/Haitian entrants
* Veterans and members of the military on active duty
* Victims of a severe form of trafficking
Federal Means-Tested Public Benefits
Under PRWORA, the new sponsor deeming rules apply to "any Federal means-tested public benefits program."
Federal means-tested public benefit programs are public programs funded in whole or in part by the federal
government, which the federal agency administering the funds has determined to be means-tested. This means
that federal agencies make their own determinations about which of their programs may be subject to PRWORA.
For example, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA)
have both interpreted the term "federal means-tested benefits" to include only federal means-tested mandatory
spending programs. So far, federal agencies have announced the following as federal mean-tested public benefit
programs:
* Food Stamps
* Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
* Medicaid
* Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
Under the deeming rules, the agencies that run the aforementioned programs will "deem" a sponsor's income and
the income of the sponsor's current spouse to determine whether an applicant immigrant is eligible to receive the
program's benefits.
Means-tested benefits generally do not include:
* Emergency Medicaid
* Short-term, non-cash emergency relief
* Services under the National School Lunch and Child Nutrition Acts
* Immunizations, testing and treatment for communicable diseases
* Student assistance under the Higher Education Act and the Public Health Service Act
* Certain foster care or adoption assistance under the Social Security Act
* Head Start programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
* Job Training Partnership Act programs
Exceptions to Sponsor-To-Alien Deeming Rules
There are two exceptions to the deeming requirement. Specifically, federal agencies will deem only the amount of
income actually provided to the sponsored immigrant in determining the immigrant's eligibility to receive the benefit
if:
1. The sponsored immigrant or certain family members has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty by certain
persons in the same household; or
2. The sponsored immigrant would be unable to obtain food and shelter without public assistance.
Further, PRWORA does not require states to deem a sponsor's income in determining alien eligibility for a
state-funded public benefit. However, PRWORA does give states the authority to deem, if a state so chooses.
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