7 CFR § 773.6 - Eligibility requirements.

Loan applicants must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for a Special Apple Program Loan:

(a) The loan applicant must be an apple producer;

(b) The loan applicant must be a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence under the Immigration and Nationalization Act. For a business entity applicant, the majority of the business entity must be owned by members meeting the citizenship test or, other entities that are domestically owned. Aliens must provide the appropriate Immigration and Naturalization Service forms to document their permanent residency;

(c) The loan applicant and anyone who will execute the promissory note must possess the legal capacity to enter into contracts, including debt instruments;

(d) At loan closing the loan applicant and anyone who will execute the promissory note must not be delinquent on any Federal debt, other than a debt under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986;

(e) At loan closing the loan applicant and anyone who will execute the promissory note must not have any outstanding unpaid judgments obtained by the United States in any court. Such judgments do not include those filed as a result of action in the United States Tax Courts;

(f) The loan applicant, in past or present dealings with the Agency, must not have provided the Agency with false information; and

(g) The individual or business entity loan applicant and all entity members must have acceptable credit history demonstrated by debt repayment. A history of failure to repay past debts as they came due (including debts to the Internal Revenue Service) when the ability to repay was within their control will demonstrate unacceptable credit history. Unacceptable credit history will not include isolated instances of late payments which do not represent a pattern and were clearly beyond the applicant's control or lack of credit history.