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COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, disrupted life across the United States and around the world. In order to alleviate the economic burden on Americans, Congress authorized stimulus payments, also known as recovery rebate checks. However, not all immigrants were eligible for these payments, and the program has since ended with no apparent prospects for renewal.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) authorized Economic Impact Payments (payments) to Americans in varying amounts, which depend on income and other criteria described below.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) distributed the payments to people who qualified without their having to apply. Under the CARES Act, Americans could receive up to $1,200 per individual, $2,400 per married couples who file joint tax returns, and $500 per qualifying minor child.
To qualify for a stimulus payment, you needed to:
Beyond the income and dependency restrictions, which applied across the board regardless of immigration status, the other two requirements involving immigration status and Social Security numbers could heavily impact the outcome for immigrants and their families.
In order to qualify for the payments, you needed to be either a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident (green card holder), or a qualifying resident alien. The first two categories are self explanatory. However, who is and is not a qualifying resident alien can get tricky.
The IRS defines a resident alien as someone who either is a green card holder or meets the substantial presence test for the calendar year (January 1 to December 31).
In order to pass the substantial presence test, you need to have been present in the U.S. for 31 days during the year the payments were authorized, and 183 total days in the previous three years. Certain immigrant categories by statute cannot establish substantial presence. These include F student visa holders, J visa students, and other rare visa categories.
In order to receive the payment, you needed to have a valid Social Security number. If you have a Social Security card that says "authorized to work with DHS authorization only," that still qualifies as a valid number for stimulus payment purposes.
Many undocumented immigrants do not have Social Security numbers, but still file taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Unfortunately, anyone who uses an ITIN instead of a Social Security number was categorically denied the stimulus payment.
Immigrants who would have qualified for the stimulus payment under the above rules include: any lawful permanent resident, DACA and TPS recipients, H-1B visa holders, H-1B visa holders with H-4 spouses who have Social Security numbers, TN visa holders, O-1 visa holders, E-2 visa holders, and others ASSUMING they had Social Security numbers and substantial presence in the U.S.
Immigrants who would not have qualified include undocumented immigrants, anyone who files a tax return using an ITIN, F-1 student visa holders or anyone on a student/trainee visa (including J, M, and Q visas), F-1 visa holders with Optional Practical Training (OPT), B-1 or B-2 visa holders, H-1B visa holders, H-1B visa holders with H-4 spouses who have only an ITIN, and anyone without a Social Security number. This is not an exhaustive list.
Mixed-status families, where one spouse has a Social Security number and the other has an ITIN, were in a tougher situation with regard to stimulus payments. Due to a quirk of the law, not only would the ITIN holder not receive a payment, their spouse wouldn't either, if they were married filing jointly. The same was true if both spouses had Social Security numbers but claimed a dependent with an ITIN.
There is one exception to this rule: If either spouse is a member of the U.S. military at any time during the taxable year, then only one spouse needed to have a valid Social Security number to receive the stimulus payments.
This means that many U.S. citizens did not receive stimulus payments, if they jointly filed with an undocumented spouse who used an ITIN. Nor did they receive payments for their dependent children. One ITIN filer on a tax return could prevent stimulus payments for an entire family, even if the other spouse and all children are U.S. citizens.
There was concern that families with legal immigrant spouses were also unable to receive stimulus payments. However, so long as the legal immigrant spouse met the IRS qualifications discussed above (valid Social Security number, lawful permanent resident or qualifying resident alien, and met the income requirements), that family was able to receive the stimulus check.
The stimulus payments were considered tax credits and did not have any negative public charge consequences for people concerned about this ground of immigration inadmissibility or becoming deportable.