1. (a)

   1. (1) Section 212(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that an alien who enters the United States seeking permanent residence under one (1) of the criteria listed below must have a sponsor.
   2. (2) A sponsor is defined as any person who executed an affidavit of support (Form I-864) on behalf of an alien as a condition of the alien’s entry into the United States.

2. (b) A sponsored alien may be:

   1. (1)

      1. (A) An immediate relative, admitted under Section 201(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, of a United States citizen or a lawfully admitted permanent resident alien.
      2. (B) An immediate relative is defined as a spouse, a child under twenty-one (21), or parent of a sponsor who is at least age twenty-one (21);
   2. (2) A family-based preference alien, admitted under Section 203(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, who is a married or unmarried adult son or daughter or a sibling of an adult United States citizen or lawfully admitted alien for permanent residence, or the spouse and unmarried minor and adult children of the principal sponsored alien under Section 203(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act; or
   3. (3) An employment-based preference alien admitted under Section 203(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act who is a relative of an individual who owns at least five percent (5%) of the petitioning entity.

3. (c) When an individual has sponsored an alien, then a portion of the sponsor’s income must be deemed available to the alien until the alien:

   1. (1) Becomes a United States citizen;
   2. (2) Has worked, or can be credited with, forty (40) qualifying quarters of work, excluding any quarter after December 31, 1997, in which the alien received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or Supplemental Security Income benefits; or
   3. (3) Departs the United States permanently or dies.

4. (d) Computing deemed income of an alien’s sponsor.

   1. (1) To determine the amount of the sponsor’s, or his or her spouse’s, income that will be deemed to the alien, the Case Manager will:

      1. (A) Determine the sponsor’s gross monthly earned income and deduct twenty percent (20%), up to one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175), of the gross;
      2. (B) Add any unearned income to the gross earned after the twenty percent (20%) deduction;
      3. (C)

5. (i) Deduct the one hundred percent (100%) standard or the federal poverty level for the same family size as the sponsor and those persons living in the same household whom the sponsor claims as dependents for federal income tax purposes and who are not included in the transitional employment assistance (TEA) assistance unit.

   1. (ii) Refer to Medical Services Policy Manual, 20 CAR pt. 500, Appendix F for a current federal poverty level chart;

      1. (D) Deduct any amounts actually paid by the sponsor to persons not living in the same household who are claimed by the sponsor as dependents for federal income tax purposes;
      2. (E) Deduct any alimony or child support payments paid to persons not living in the same household; and
      3. (F) The amount remaining after all allowable deductions will be included as unearned income in the alien’s TEA budget.

   2. (2)

      1. (A) When an individual is the sponsor of two (2) or more aliens, the amount of the deemed income will be divided equally among the sponsored aliens.
      2. (B) Any income deemed to a sponsored alien will not be considered in determining the need of other nonsponsored members of the alien’s family except to the extent the income is actually available.

Codification Notes: This section as promulgated prior to codification into the Code of Arkansas Rules provided as follows: “06/01/04” The Immigration and Nationality Act is codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq.