BarnDance

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

Blame the past abuse for the tough stance on immigrant intent. It’s those who have violated the law by overstaying that created the need to presume that others will do the same.

I am all for it. But it's useless in its current form, as a mind reader-tool. The presumption obviously doesn't lead anywhere when not considered beyond the CBP-men, and as part of the immigration-process.

"Immigrant intent", must be one of the most useless immigration laws ever, and being part of the American system only makes it stranger. If the "intent" is up to a single person to determine - when this person sees/talks to you for under a minute, and nobody after that gives it much consideration - what's the use of this part of the Immigration Law system? It renders down to just a simple guess and to show the system's supposed strength. 

"Intent" as such can only be scrutinized and determined by looking at the whole picture of events and choices from the person in question and by investigating those in a process - by the personnel at USCIS and by gather and sharing information from different parts of the authority system.
 
No one knows what anyone thinks, therefore it's the pattern of behavior and actions you must look at, over a period of time.

Trump has trumped up the system, thank god for him, but there is still a lot of odd things in it that doesn't fit with a country like America and pure logical thinking.

I meant in general, not only concerning the new rule which goes into effect on October 15th.

If someone today wants to sponsor an immigrant and lives on benefits in the likes of SSI, Medicaid and other purely governmental/tax payer funded means, that wouldn't count as income, would it? So the sponsor would have to find a joint sponsor with income from employment?

14 minutes ago, MomDad said:

SSDI counts but SSI is a big NO... 

Just like I suspected.

Hello, I hope you guys and girls can give me a definite answer to my question of sponsoring someone while on benefits like SSI, TANF and other state/governmental supported benefits.
While reading on the internet on the subject different answers presents themselves and emerge, and while a DHS-memorandum from 2006 clearly states that it does not count as income, several immigration lawyers states is does, and oddly enough I can't find a straight answer anywhere, not even on the most obvious source; USCIS.

I realize even if you could, the level of income would be far too low, but the core of the question is if welfare counts as real income or not. My immigrant reptile sense says instant no. And maybe the lack of answers lies within that sense; of course you can't and being America and all, a bit more realistic than Europe in dealing with immigration. More so now with Trump and all..

Anyway, appreciate the read and your input.