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DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FAMILY INVESTMENT ADMINISTRATION SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP) MANUAL CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION STATUS Section 120 Page 2
120.2 U.S. Citizen or Non-citizen National (continued) status on the application and in the interview process, when an applicant signs the Rights and Responsibilities form, they are declaring their status under penalty of perjury. Note: The decision that an individual's declaration of citizenship is questionable must be non-discriminatory. For example, it cannot be based on the fact that the applicant looks or sounds foreign or has an ethnic surname. B. Subject to certain exceptions and qualifications, a U.S. citizen is: a. A person (other than the child of a foreign diplomat) born in one of the states, or in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands, who has not renounced or otherwise lost their citizenship; i. Most persons born in the Northern Mariana Islands before November 4, 1986 became U.S. citizens on that date under Article 3 of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America. b. A person born outside the U.S. to at least one U.S. citizen parent (sometimes referred to as a derivative citizen); or c. A naturalized U.S. citizen. C. A U.S. non-citizen national is a person born in an outlying possession of the U.S. (American Samoa or Swain's Island) on or after the date the U.S. acquired possession or a person whose parents are U.S. non-citizen nationals (subject to certain residency requirements). D. Verify status if questionable. Evidence of citizenship includes, but is not limited to the following: a. A birth certificate showing birth in one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico (on or after March 2, 1917), Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands (on or after January 17, 1917), American Samoa, Swain's Island, or the Northern Mariana Islands (on or after November 4, 1986), unless the person was born to foreign diplomats residing in the U.S.; REVISED JANUARY 2026