In my last blog entry I said that non-citizens—legal or not—can file bankruptcy. All they need is appropriate identification. But that raises two questions: 1) Would that non-citizen receive all the benefits from that bankruptcy that a citizen would receive?  2) And would filing the bankruptcy hurt a legal non-citizen’s efforts to become a citizen, or would it increase an illegal immigrant’s risk of deportation?

I’ll address the first of these questions now, and the second one in my next post.

Two benefits of bankruptcy pertain here:

1. The protection of assets from the bankruptcy trustee (and thus from the creditors) through “exemptions.”
2. The granting of a discharge of debts.

Exemptions:
The rules about what property of a debtor is exempt do not directly change with the debtor’s citizenship status, but there are potentially very important indirect effects.

Bankruptcies filed many states use that state’s own set of exemptions. So the federal bankruptcy court has to interpret that state’s definitions of those exemption definitions. Some of those definitions and the court’s interpretations of them can disqualify some immigrants. For example, Florida has a very generous homestead exemption, but In order to qualify for it, a debtor must be a permanent resident of the state with the intent to make the property in question his permanent residence. This residency requirement can be satisfied by a non-citizen only if he or she has gotten permanent resident status—a “green card”—as of the date of the filing of the bankruptcy. In a recent case, the immigrant was in the process of getting his permanent residency and in fact received that status three months after filing bankruptcy, but he was still deemed not to be a permanent resident at the time of his bankruptcy filing and so was denied a homestead exemption.

Discharge:
Again, the rules about what debts can be discharged and which cannot are the same regardless of citizenship. But some non-citizens have debts which were incurred in another country, leading to the question: Can those debts can be discharged in their U.S. bankruptcy case?

It depends.

First, assuming that the creditor is given appropriate notice of the bankruptcy, and the debtor successfully gets a discharge of his or her debts, that creditor will no longer be able to try to collect that foreign in the U.S.

But second, there is a good chance that the U. S. bankruptcy court’s discharge of this debt does not result in the discharge of the debt under the laws of the original country. If so, then that debt can continue to be collected according to the laws of that country, presumably against the debtor’s assets in that country, and perhaps in other countries outside the U. S. This depends on complicated international issues like treaties between the U.S. and that country, and whether they have “comity”—an agreement to respect each other’s laws—specifically in the area of bankruptcy. Otherwise, if the debtor has property outside the U. S., or intends to return to the other country, even just to visit, these issues should be investigated very closely, likely with both your U. S. bankruptcy attorney and one in the other country. In some situations, it even may be necessary to file the appropriate form of bankruptcy in the other country, assuming that exists and the debtor qualifies to do so.

The answer is simple: Yes.

The Bankruptcy Code does not limit who may file based on citizenship status. It states that “only a person that resides or has a domicile, a place of business, or property in the United States… may be a debtor… .”  The “person” is simply defined to include an “individual” (as well as a “partnership and corporation”). The point is that there is no requirement about needing to be a citizen, or even to being legally in the country. So everyone, citizen or non-citizens, legal or illegal, can file bankruptcy.

But the person must meet one of the above categories of who may be a “debtor.”

One often used category is to have a “domicile,” meaning simply being physically present in one location with the intention of making that place the person’s present home. Generally the longer the person has been in one place and the more he or she has put down roots—such as getting a state drivers license—the easier to show intent to establish a domicile.

Having any meaningful amount of property, such as bank or other financial accounts, or a vehicle, would itself likely be sufficient to qualify as a debtor.

Any other requirements? The bankruptcy filing documents ask for a Social Security number, but there is nothing in the Bankruptcy Code which requires that. If the person filing bankruptcy has a legal Social Security number appropriately issued by the Social Security Administration, it should be used. Otherwise, the person should get an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (“ITIN”) from the IRS, and use that. The “IRS issues ITINs to foreign nationals and others who have federal tax reporting or filing requirements and do not qualify for SSNs.”

Anything else? In most places, the bankruptcy filer will also need to show proof of identity at the so-called Meeting of Creditors, to allow the bankruptcy to verify that the person present there answering the questions under oath is a real person and the one who filed the bankruptcy documents. This aims to prevent identity scams. Proof of identity generally requires two things: 1) a document showing your SSN or ITIN—such as the original Social Security card it that’s available, or some other paper received from the government or from an employer showing the number; plus 2) some form of photo identification—such as a driver’s license or passport.

So is that it? Well, yes, with these conditions met the non-citizen can file for bankruptcy. But two big questions remain that just can’t get swept under the rug:

1. Would a non-citizen potentially have problems qualifying for any of the benefits of bankruptcy, such as getting a “discharge” (legal write-off) of the debts, or claiming property exemptions in order to keep the property?
2. Does filing the bankruptcy harm a legal non-citizen’s efforts to become a citizen, or does it increase an illegal immigrant’s risk of deportation?  

Sorry for keeping you in suspense, but I’ve covered enough for one day and so l’ll address have to these important questions in my next two blogs.