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BEM 225 1 of 46 CITIZENSHIP/NON-CITIZEN STATUS BPB 2026-017 7-1-2026

BRIDGES ELIGIBILITY MANUAL STATE OF MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

DEPARTMENT POLICY In this item: • INA refers to the Immigration and Nationality Act. • USCIS refers to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration or Immigration and Naturalization Service. • SSA refers to the Social Security Administration. All Programs Determine the status of each non-citizen requesting benefits at application, member addition, redetermination and when a change is reported. Note: For Child Development & Care (CDC), only determine the non-citizen status of each child for whom care is requested, not other family members. Exception: RSDI and SSI recipients, Medicare recipients; see Bridges Eligibility Manual (BEM) 145, Newborns, safe delivery babies, and children receiving Title IV-B services or Title IV-E adoption assistance, or foster care payments are not required to verify U.S. citizenship. Citizenship/non-citizen eligibility for the Refugee Assistance Program can be found in BEM 630. FIP, SDA, CDC and SNAP If a group member is identified on the application as a U.S. citizen, do not require verification unless the statement about citizenship is inconsistent, in conflict with known facts or is questionable. The fol- lowing are not sufficient reasons to question citizenship: • General appearance of the applicant. • Accent. • English is not first language. • Employment as a migrant farmworker. • Unique sounding name. A person must be a U.S. citizen or have an acceptable non-citizen status for the designated programs; see Citizenship/Non-