Applying for Food and Medical Assistance

[Rsd3659 1]

Hello, my spouse is a USC and she has recently lost her income. We have applied for AOS along with all other paper work such as I-864 and I-944 when she had income so now things have changed. We have a joint sponsor that already submitted when we initially filed. My question is can my spouse apply for SNAP and Medicaid? Also, Do we need to resubmit any of the paperwork since things have changed? How will this affect the immigration case?

[DialNoises 6]

Applying for public benefits, which is accomplishable such as Medicaid can qualify your spouse for public charge, which will be very frowned upon during the AOS interview and can most definitely get your pending AOS denied and even may affect your chances of applying again if I am not wrong.

The new I-944 form is there to determine that you wouldnt be subject to public benefits or be a burden on the tax payer money, if they were to determine that youre public charge, then your application would get denied, if you were to use public benefits before the AOS, they wouldnt even need to make a judgement on whichever your spouse is public charge or not, their decision would be just made on the spot.

[JonSeattle 202]

Sorry to hear about your hardship. There are other problems with applying besides the effect on your spouse's immigration.

 

The form I-864 that your co-sponsor signed says that the federal government may include the co-sponsor's income and assets when determining eligibility for means-tested programs. I don't know what happens in practice, but I recommend re-reading pages 5-6 of the contract on form I-864 and be very careful.

[Rsd3659 1]

I am not sure if I explained my self correctly. I am the petitioner for the Adjustment of status. My spouse is the US citizen. My spouse who is a citizen wants to apply for benefits such as SNAP and Medicaid. I am the immigrant and will not apply. I am asking whether she actually can and whether we need to file new documents now since she will apply because she lost part of the income that we reported before! 

[Ayrton 965]

1 hour ago, Rsd3659 said:

I am not sure if I explained my self correctly. I am the petitioner for the Adjustment of status. My spouse is the US citizen. My spouse who is a citizen wants to apply for benefits such as SNAP and Medicaid. I am the immigrant and will not apply. I am asking whether she actually can and whether we need to file new documents now since she will apply because she lost part of the income that we reported before! 

"The final rule does not apply to: 

 

U.S. citizens, even if the U.S. citizen is related to a noncitizen who is subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility; or"

 

https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-processes-and-procedures/public-charge

Edited February 14, 2021 by Ayrton

[Letspaintcookies 2,310]

On 2/13/2021 at 4:38 PM, Rsd3659 said:

I am not sure if I explained my self correctly. I am the petitioner for the Adjustment of status. My spouse is the US citizen. My spouse who is a citizen wants to apply for benefits such as SNAP and Medicaid. I am the immigrant and will not apply. I am asking whether she actually can and whether we need to file new documents now since she will apply because she lost part of the income that we reported before! 

You don't have to send in anything right now. At the interview they might ask for an updated I-864 but you have time till then to figure things out. Good luck