SNAP eligibility for immigrants after the 2025 law

Since July 4, 2025, only four groups of noncitizens can get SNAP: lawful permanent residents (green card holders), Cuban and Haitian entrants, citizens of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau living here under the Compacts of Free Association (COFA), and non-citizen U.S. nationals. Section 10108 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21) rewrote the citizenship rule, and refugees, people granted asylum, most parolees, trafficking victims and several other groups lost SNAP eligibility. Most green card holders still wait five years before they qualify, with exceptions for children, people with disabilities and others. Undocumented immigrants have never been eligible (USDA SNAP Eligibility page, updated October 1, 2026). A family can still get SNAP for its eligible members, such as U.S.-citizen children, even when a parent cannot. USDA’s own eligibility pages still say they are being updated for the 2025 law, so this guide works from the law itself, USDA’s October 31, 2025 implementation memo, its revised Q&A of December 9, 2025, federal regulations and a September 17, 2026 court ruling.

Who can get SNAP after July 4, 2025

The law lists who may be a member of a SNAP household. Anyone else is an “ineligible” member, even if they live and eat with the family. Every person on the list must also meet SNAP’s income, resource, work and other rules.

Sources: P.L. 119-21, sec. 10108; the USDA memo of October 31, 2025, Attachments 1 and 2; and the USDA Q&A of December 9, 2025. TPS, DACA and visa holders were not “qualified aliens” for SNAP before 2025 either (7 CFR 273.4(a)(6)).

Three groups need more explanation.

Cuban and Haitian entrants. The term has a specific legal meaning in section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 (8 U.S.C. 1522 note). It covers anyone granted parole as a “Cuban/Haitian Entrant (Status Pending)”. It also covers any other Cuban or Haitian national who was paroled into the United States and has no other immigration status, who is in removal proceedings, or who has an asylum application pending, as long as no final order of removal has been entered. So a Cuban or Haitian national with parole may still qualify even though most other parolees do not. The SNAP office confirms the status through the federal SAVE system.

COFA citizens. This means citizens of the three Compact nations who lawfully live in the United States under the Compacts (USDA memo, Attachment 2). They have no waiting period.

Children. Being under 18 does not by itself make a child eligible. A refugee or asylee child is not eligible because of that status, according to USDA’s Q&A, question 2. A child who is a green card holder is eligible with no five-year wait.

Green card holders and the five-year wait

The 2025 law did not change the five-year waiting period. It comes from the 1996 welfare law, 8 U.S.C. 1613, and USDA confirmed it still applies (Q&A, question 3). A green card holder can get SNAP without waiting five years if they:

• are under 18;
• have 40 qualifying quarters of work. Quarters earned by a parent before you turned 18 count, and so do a spouse’s quarters during the marriage. Quarters after 1996 in which you (or that parent or spouse) received SNAP or another federal means-tested benefit do not count (7 CFR 273.4(a)(6)(ii)(A));
• are blind or disabled;
• were lawfully living in the United States and 65 or older on August 22, 1996;
• have a U.S. military connection: on active duty (not National Guard), or an honorably discharged veteran whose discharge was not because of immigration status, plus the spouse, unremarried surviving spouse and unmarried dependent children. A discharge “under honorable conditions” is not the same as an honorable discharge and does not meet this test (USDA memo, Attachment 2);
• were admitted as an Amerasian immigrant, are an American Indian born abroad, or are a Hmong or Highland Laotian tribal member covered by the law.

Green card holders who came in another status. Many refugees and others who lost SNAP in 2025 will become eligible again when they get a green card. Whether they wait five years after that depends on their earlier status (Q&A, question 5):

• No wait after the green card: former refugees, asylees, people with deportation withheld, Cuban and Haitian entrants, Amerasians, COFA citizens, American Indians born abroad, Hmong and Highland Laotians, Iraqi and Afghan special immigrants, Afghan nationals paroled between July 31, 2021 and September 30, 2023, Ukrainian nationals paroled between February 24, 2022 and September 30, 2024, and trafficking victims.
• Five-year wait still applies (unless the person is under 18, has 40 quarters, is blind or disabled, was 65 or older on August 22, 1996, or has a military connection): former conditional entrants, battered noncitizens, and people paroled for at least one year.

USDA counts you as a green card holder only once you have the approval notice and the card. A pending application to adjust status does not count (Q&A, footnote 3).

When the five years start. The clock starts on the date you got a “qualified” status or entered in one, not necessarily the date on your green card (Q&A, question 4). The qualified statuses include parole for at least one year, battered noncitizen status and conditional entry, as well as green card status. Example: a woman was paroled into the country for two years in March 2022 and got her green card in June 2025. She is not in an exempt group, such as the Afghan and Ukrainian parolees. Her five years run from March 2022, so she can qualify from March 2027, not June 2030. If your green card does not show the earlier date, the SNAP office can ask USCIS through SAVE (Q&A, question 6).

The September 17, 2026 court ruling

USDA’s October 31, 2025 memo listed refugees, asylees, people with deportation withheld and the Afghan and Ukrainian parolees as “not eligible”. It did not say they become eligible, with no wait, once they hold a green card. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia sued in New York v. Rollins, No. 6:25-cv-02186 (D. Or.). USDA’s Q&A of December 2025 took the states’ reading, and the court granted a preliminary injunction on December 15, 2025 (Oregon Department of Justice case page). On September 17, 2026, the court granted the states summary judgment. It declared that green card holders are eligible for SNAP regardless of their prior status, and that the five-year wait does not apply to green card holders who are or were refugees, asylees, people with deportation withheld or the covered Afghan and Ukrainian parolees (opinion and order, pages 4, 27 and 32). If a SNAP office tells a former refugee with a green card to wait five years, that is the point to raise in a fair hearing.

When the change reached your household

The law took effect on July 4, 2025, the day it was signed (Q&A, question 1). USDA told states to apply the new list to new applicants right away. For households already on SNAP, the state reviews each member’s status at the next recertification and removes anyone no longer eligible at that point (USDA memo, page 3).

In practice, states started on different dates. California, for example, applied the new rules to applications received from April 1, 2026 and to recertifications due from April 2026 (effective May 1, 2026). Applications received before April 1 were decided under the old rules until the household’s next recertification (CDSS All County Letter 25-92, December 31, 2025). Your state page shows the date where the state has published one.

Two protections apply if your household lost a member this way:

• No overpayment bill. Households do not have to report a change in immigration status during a certification period. So a person removed at recertification under the 2025 rules does not owe back the benefits they received after July 4, 2025 (USDA memo, footnote 4).
• A notice that names each person. The state must send a written notice when it denies or ends benefits. You can ask for a fair hearing on any action taken in the prior 90 days (7 CFR 273.15(g)).

If someone in your home gains an eligible status, such as a refugee who gets a green card, report it. The state acts on changes that increase benefits during the certification period. California’s instructions to counties say so expressly (ACL 25-92, pages 6-7).

Mixed-status households

A household can include citizens, eligible noncitizens and people who cannot get SNAP. The eligible members can still receive benefits. The ineligible person is left out of the household size, but their money is not ignored. The amended law says the income of the ineligible person (“less, at State option, a pro rata share”) and all of their resources count toward the rest of the household (P.L. 119-21, sec. 10108). The regulation, 7 CFR 273.11(c), sets out the two methods:

• Full count. All of the ineligible member’s income counts, and the household keeps the deductions for the whole household’s expenses.
• Pro rata. The ineligible member’s income is divided evenly among everyone in the home, and only the other members’ shares count. Rent and other expenses that person pays are divided the same way. A state may also count all of the income for the gross income test and the pro rata amount for the net test and benefit.

The state chooses the method. The regulation has not been rewritten for the 2025 law and has separate options for some groups, such as ineligible refugees, asylees and parolees, so ask your state which applies. California uses the pro rata method (ACL 25-92).

Worked example: a parent who cannot get SNAP and two citizen children

A mother who is not eligible lives with her two U.S.-citizen children, ages 6 and 9, in one of the 48 states. She earns $2,400 a month before taxes. She pays $1,200 rent, which includes utilities. She applies only for the children, so the SNAP household is two people. FY2027 figures (October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027) come from USDA’s cost-of-living memo of August 21, 2026: gross limit for two at 130% of poverty $2,345, net limit $1,804, standard deduction $217, maximum benefit for two $562.

Same family, same paycheck: $168 a month apart, only because of the state’s choice. In a full-count state that keeps the federal 130% gross limit, the children would get nothing. Many states use a higher gross limit; see SNAP income limits by state. For the general formula, see how SNAP benefits are calculated. The rounding rule is in 7 CFR 273.10(e)(2)(ii)(A).

Applying for your children only

• You do not have to apply for yourself. If a household member does not give documents about their immigration status, the state classifies that person as ineligible and must stop trying to get the documents (7 CFR 273.4(b)(2)). Their income and resources still count, under the full-count or pro rata method (7 CFR 273.11(c)(3)(iii)). So you will still be asked about your income.
• What SNAP offices must report. Federal rules require a state to tell immigration authorities when it determines that a household member is unlawfully present (7 CFR 273.4(b)(1)). The interagency notice that defines this duty, published September 28, 2000, limits it. An agency “knows” someone is unlawfully present only through a formal determination on that person’s own claim for benefits, backed by an immigration authority’s decision such as a final order of deportation. A SAVE result showing no record, or an ineligible status, is not such a finding (65 FR 58301).

Sponsored immigrants: the sponsor’s income can count

Most people who got a green card through a family petition have a sponsor who signed USCIS Form I-864, the Affidavit of Support. Once such a person is eligible for SNAP (usually after the five-year wait), the state adds part of the sponsor’s income and resources to the immigrant’s own. This is called deeming. It lasts until the immigrant becomes a citizen, has 40 qualifying quarters of work, or the sponsor dies (7 CFR 273.4(c)(2)).

How it is calculated:

1. Start with the gross monthly income of the sponsor, and of the sponsor’s spouse if the spouse signed Form I-864A.
2. Subtract 20% of their earnings.
3. Subtract the SNAP gross income limit (130% of poverty) for the sponsor’s household: the sponsor, their spouse and anyone they claim or could claim as a tax dependent.
4. What is left counts as the immigrant’s unearned income. The sponsor’s resources count too, minus $1,500.

Example (FY2027): A man’s sister sponsored him. She earns $5,000 a month, her husband has no income and did not sign Form I-864A, and they have one child, so her household is three people. $5,000 − $1,000 (20%) = $4,000, minus the 130% limit for three people, $2,960 (USDA FY2027 memo), leaves $1,040 a month counted as his income, whether or not she gives him any money. That alone is most of the $1,729 gross limit for one person.

Deeming does not apply if (7 CFR 273.4(c)(3)):

• the immigrant lives in the sponsor’s SNAP household;
• the sponsor is an organization, not a person;
• the immigrant is the under-18 child of a sponsored immigrant, or a citizen child under 18 of a sponsored immigrant;
• the immigrant is a battered spouse or child (or the parent of a battered child) living apart from the abuser, for 12 months, and longer in some cases;
• the state finds the immigrant indigent: their own income plus cash and in-kind help from the sponsor and others is no more than 130% of the poverty guideline for their household size. Only the help actually given is then counted, for 12 months at a time. The state must report each indigence finding to the U.S. Attorney General. It may set up a process that does not share the person’s information without their consent, but a person who refuses consent is ineligible.

If the sponsor will not give the information, the sponsored person is ineligible until it is provided. The rest of the household can still be served (7 CFR 273.4(c)(5)).

Public charge in plain terms (rule effective September 18, 2026)

“Public charge” is a test immigration officers use to decide whether someone applying for a green card or to enter the United States is likely to depend on the government. It is a test in immigration decisions. SNAP offices do not apply it, and it does not change who can get SNAP. A new Department of Homeland Security rule changed how the test works for green card applications filed on or after September 18, 2026 (Federal Register, 91 FR 45324, July 20, 2026).

What the 2026 rule means for SNAP:

• SNAP received before September 18, 2026 is not counted against you. For benefits received before that date, USCIS considers only cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term care in an institution at government expense. For benefits received on or after that date, it can consider any means-tested benefit, and the USCIS announcement names food stamps (USCIS alert, August 18, 2026). If you were approved for SNAP before that date for a period that runs past it and you do not end the benefit, DHS says it can consider the benefits from that date on. Officers decide case by case, weighing age, health, family status, finances, education and skills, and the Form I-864 affidavit of support.
• Many people are exempt from the test entirely. USCIS’s list includes refugees and asylees, Cuban Adjustment Act applicants, special immigrant juveniles, people applying for TPS, T visa (trafficking) and U visa (crime victim) holders, VAWA self-petitioners and several other groups (USCIS alert). Most family-based and employment-based green card applicants are subject to it. DHS also said it will not automatically ignore benefits received while a person was in an exempt status if that person later applies for a green card in a category that is subject to the test (91 FR 45324).
• Green card holders are generally not tested again. Once you are a permanent resident, public charge is not looked at again unless you are treated as seeking admission when returning from abroad, for example after more than 180 days outside the country. DHS also wrote that nothing in the rule “pertains to citizenship or naturalization” (91 FR 45324).
• Benefits your family members get. DHS said it will “generally not consider” benefits received by family members, and that the green card form asks only about the applicant’s own benefits. There is one stated exception. If the record shows that someone you are legally obligated to support, such as your child, receives benefits because your income is low, the officer may weigh that as part of your financial situation (91 FR 45324).

The rule is being challenged in court. On September 14, 2026, New York City, other cities and counties and the Public Rights Project filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alongside a separate challenge led by the New York Attorney General (New York City Mayor’s Office, September 14, 2026). Public charge decisions depend on the facts of each case. If someone in your family has a green card application planned or pending, ask an immigration attorney or a DOJ-recognized nonprofit before deciding about benefits. The Justice Department keeps a list of free legal service providers.

Proving status when you apply

Each noncitizen applying for SNAP must show an eligible status. States must check it through USCIS’s SAVE system before approval, and USDA encourages them to check again at recertification and when other changes are processed (USDA memo, page 3). Bring your green card, I-94 or other USCIS document. USCIS documents usually show the date you entered or got your status, which matters for the five-year clock (Q&A, question 6). If you have 40 quarters through a parent or spouse, bring their Social Security information. For the full application process, see how to apply for SNAP.

If you lost SNAP or cannot get it

• Check the notice. It should say which person was removed and why. If you think the state applied the wrong rule, for example a five-year wait for a former refugee with a green card, ask for a fair hearing within 90 days (how fair hearings work).
• Watch for status changes. A refugee, asylee or parolee who gets a green card can reapply or report the change at once. Most of these groups have no wait (see the lists above).
• State-funded food programs. A few states pay for food benefits for some immigrants with their own money, but these programs do not always cover the people who lost SNAP in 2025. California’s CFAP covers lawfully present immigrants who lost CalFresh under the 1996 law. The state says most people who lost CalFresh because of the 2025 law do not qualify, except battered noncitizens (ACL 25-92, page 8; see California). Washington’s state Food Assistance Program is described as serving “lawfully admitted immigrants who meet all the Basic Food requirements except citizenship or alien status” (Washington DSHS; see Washington). Ask your state agency whether your status qualifies; your state’s agency is listed on its page in the state directory.
• Other household members. Citizen children and eligible adults in the home keep their SNAP. Make sure the household’s case still lists them.

Sources

• Public Law 119-21 (July 4, 2025), sec. 10108, Alien SNAP eligibility, U.S. Government Publishing Office
• SNAP Implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 – Alien SNAP Eligibility (memo, October 31, 2025), USDA
• SNAP Provisions of the OBBB – Alien SNAP Eligibility – Q&A #1 Revised (December 9, 2025), USDA
• SNAP – Fiscal Year 2027 Cost-of-Living Adjustments (memo, August 21, 2026), USDA
• SNAP Eligibility (page updated October 1, 2026), USDA Food and Nutrition Administration
• 7 CFR 273.4, Citizenship and alien status, eCFR
• 7 CFR 273.10, Determining household eligibility and benefit levels, eCFR
• 7 CFR 273.11, Action on households with special circumstances, eCFR
• 7 CFR 273.15, Fair hearings, eCFR
• 8 U.S.C. 1522 note, definition of Cuban and Haitian entrant, U.S. Government Publishing Office
• Interagency notice on PRWORA section 404 reporting, 65 FR 58301 (September 28, 2000), Federal Register
• Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility, final rule, 91 FR 45324 (July 20, 2026), Federal Register
• USCIS Issues Guidance on Making Public Charge Inadmissibility Determination (August 18, 2026), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• SNAP Benefits for Refugees and Asylees (New York v. Rollins, D. Or., 6:25-cv-02186), Oregon Department of Justice
• New York v. Rollins, Opinion and Order (September 17, 2026), U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon
• All County Letter 25-92: CalFresh Implementation of H.R. 1 Changes to Noncitizen Eligibility Policy (December 31, 2025), California Department of Social Services
• State Food Assistance Program (FAP), Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
• New York City Leads Cities and Counties in Lawsuit Challenging Federal Government’s New Public Charge Rule (September 14, 2026), Office of the Mayor of New York City
• List of Pro Bono Legal Service Providers, U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review