In order to obtain an immigrant visa for a relative who is a citizen of a foreign country, one must fill out and sign an Affidavit of Support. The purpose of the affidavit is to prove that the sponsor has sufficient financial resources to support the immigrant, so that the immigrant will not be a drain on the welfare system.
My question: will the sponsor be responsible for any hospital bills incurred by the immigrant? Hospitals are not necessarily part of the public welfare system. The Affidavit of Support mentions nothing about providing health insurance for the immigrant.
Thanks in advance.
Eva Luna , are you there?
Never mind. I meant to put this in GQ. Mods, please lock or delete.
I’ll now put it in GQ.
Well, howdy!
I’ll have to look up more specifics, but my take on it is that the sponsor is only responsible for any expenses that would otherwise fall to a state or government agency if the immigrant couldn’t pay them (as in care in a public hospital). So if I were going to sponsor someone, I’d make darn sure that he/she had private medical insurance. (And again, IANAL; this is just my sem-educated guess.)
Somewhere I have a list of what programs are and aren’t covered by the restriction on new immigrants receiving public funds; it generally includes cash benefits like AFDC, SSI, as well as food stamps, etc. And if anyone tells you the Affidavit of Support is unenforceable, don’t believe them; this was true years ago, but INS has been taking much harder line lately.
I’ll poke around for the full list.