[texastoo]

You are probably referring to the $5,000 bank account for a person toget a family member here from another country.

Possibly at one time that was the law. This is how it worked. A Filipino nurse told me that when she arrived in the US, she and 7 or 8 Filipino nursed shared an apartment. They pooled their money and deposited $5,000 in a bank account for the first nurse to get a family member. When the INS had viewed the bank account and OK'd the family member, they transferred the $5,000 to another bank account for another nurse's family member. They repeated the process until they got all their family members here.

They also applied and received government aid for their parents.

From what I have read, this law has been changed to Fitz"s explanation of the 125%.

[FITZ]

And here's more which explains how many federal programs an immigrant can wish to get in on ---- like Food Stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and many others. They're shouldn't cross their fingers for TANF.

INS GUIDANCE ON PUBLIC CHARGE – WHEN IS IT SAFE TO USE PUBLIC BENEFITS?

http://www.nilc.org/ce/nilc/pubchg.htm

I like this one: "The INS will not look at whether your children or other family members used health care or other non-cash benefits like those listed above. If your children or other family members use cash welfare (like TANF or SSI), it will not count against you in a public charge decision unless it is your family's only income."

[FITZ]

You can very often find wealthy immigrants being very careful when they bring over their dearly loved parents. They'll find a relative or two who come close to the 125% of federal poverty levels to do the sponsoring so that the wealth of the others (which can be extremely high) won't be considered when taking the parents to apply for their SSI, food stamps, HUD, and Medicaid.