A: No. Any benefit that your child is eligible for and receives is not considered in your green card applications. Health or food benefits that your children or other family members get do not count as benefits that you receive yourself. Even if you use your name to apply for benefits for your child, that does not count as applying for benefits for yourself.

A: No. Any information you give on the application will be used only to determine your child’s eligibility and to run the program. This information is not shared with immigration enforcement.

A: You will have to provide some of your information. For example, the application requires income information for everyone in your family, even if they are not applying for benefits for themselves. However, you will not have to provide a social security number or information about your immigration status if you are only applying for benefits for your children. You can leave those sections blank.

A: No. If your child is eligible for benefits, your family will not need to repay those benefits in the future.

A: If you are undocumented and applying for your child or another family member, do not provide any information about your immigration status.

Instead, you may say or write, “I am not applying for this program for myself.”

A: Federal and state laws generally protect the privacy of people who apply for or receive public benefits. Applications for public programs should not ask for information about the immigration status of people who are not applying to get benefits for themselves. State benefit agencies may share information with other government agencies only for the purposes of running their programs, with limited exceptions. You should provide only the information necessary in the application.

A: No. The only kind of assistance that might be considered in your application for a green card is ongoing cash assistance (TANF and/or SSI) and long-term care (like a nursing home) paid for by the government. Receiving COVID-19 and short-term pandemic assistance will not affect your immigration status or immigration application. This includes COVID-19 testing, treatment, vaccines, stimulus checks, one-time financial assistance, P-EBT, and child tax credit.