California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - October 17, 2003

Reference: Administrative Notice 03-12

This ACIN transmits the Noncitizen Eligibility Guide provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The guide provides a history of noncitizen eligibility for food stamps beginning with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. It discusses changes since PRWORA that include restoration of food stamps for many immigrants.

Such changes include:

¨ Restoration of food stamps to legal immigrants who were in the United States before August 22, 1996 and were elderly, children or disabled.
¨ Effective October 2002, restoration of eligibility to all legal immigrants who receive disability benefits.
¨ Effective April 2003, restoration of eligibility for qualified aliens who have lived in the United States for five years.
¨ Effective October 2003, restoration to all qualified children without a waiting period.

The guide is written in question and answer format. This 38-page guide is divided into the following sections:

¨ General Eligibility
¨ Eligibility Based on Five Year Residency
¨ Sponsor-to-Immigrant Deeming
¨ Sponsor Liability
¨ Determination of 40 Qualifying Quarters of Work
¨ Treatment of Illegal Immigrants Income and Resources
¨ Reporting Illegal and Indigent Immigrants
¨ Public Charge
¨ Verification of Immigrant Status
¨ Victims of Severe Form of Trafficking and Battered Immigrants
¨ Major Legislation Affecting Immigrants in the Food Stamp Program