Judge Ellen Koblitz.

A New Jersey appeals court ruled Wednesday that a legal immigrant, who temporarily returned to his native country and then came back to New Jersey, may still be entitled to Medicaid benefits.

A three-judge Appellate Division panel in a published decision Tuesday said the petitioner, identified only as K.K., is qualified to receive benefits because of the length of time he lived in the United States before he temporarily left for his native country, India.

Because K.K. had lived so long in the United States, and had already qualified for benefits, those benefits should not be revoked, said Appellate Division Judges Jose Fuentes, Ellen Koblitz and Thomas Manahan.

“A lapse in continuous presence is … permitted, so long as an individual has already obtained qualified alien status,” Koblitz wrote for the panel.

The court referred to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which “was enacted by Congress to continue the federal immigration policy of promoting self-sufficiency and self-reliance of immigrants to reduce the burden on public benefits,” and led to amendments to Medicaid law.

K.K.'s “absence from the country for seven years after reaching the age of 65 relieved the government of making Medicaid payments during that time, thus safeguarding the taxpayer's resources,” the panel said. “In light of federal immigration policy intended to reduce the burden on public benefits, such absences need not be discouraged.”

K.K., now 88, immigrated to the United States in 1991 and became a legalized permanent resident. He eventually began receiving $226 a month in Social Security benefits, the ruling said.

K.K. returned to India in 2007, returning to the United States in 2014. A year later, he applied for Medicaid benefits.

The state Department of Human Services denied his claim, saying that under the state Medical Assistance and Health Services Act, he was not qualified to receive benefits because he was not a permanent resident for at least five years. The agency considered his entry date to be 2014, when he returned from the stay in India, not 1991, when he first entered the United States.

K.K. appealed, contending that the law entitled him to benefits since he had been a legal permanent resident before 1996, and the Appellate Division agreed “based on the plain wording of the Medicaid eligibility statute, N.J.S.A. 30:4D-3(q)(1)(a).”

K.K.'s lawyer, Somerville solo Kevin Kovacs, said only that the appeals court correctly applied regulations governing the granting of benefits.

The Attorney General's Office, which represented the DHS, did not respond to a request for comment.