§ 103.051.Application Procedure

The claim is processed as paperwork, and the section is built to keep it that way.

Everything is filed with the comptroller’s judiciary section, beginning with the application form the comptroller provides.

Verified copies of the qualifying documents come next — the pardon, court order, motion to dismiss and affidavit, whichever apply. These are the documents the eligibility decision rests on.

Length of confinement is proved by statement, not by argument. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice and any county or municipality that held the person for the relevant sentence must verify how long the incarceration ran.

Three further statements are filed when they apply: Department of Public Safety verification of sex offender registration and its length, department verification of time on parole, and, for a child support claim under Section 103.052(a)(2), certified copies of each support order plus the official payment records for the period.

The comptroller decides two things — whether the claimant is eligible and how much is owed — within 45 days of receiving the application.

The eligibility review is confined to the verified documents. If those documents do not show entitlement on their face, the claim is denied, and Subsection (b-1) calls the duty purely ministerial. The comptroller weighs no evidence and reopens no case.

A denial must state its reason, and the claimant gets one cure. The cured application is due within 30 days of receiving the denial, and the comptroller then has another 45 days to decide.

A second denial opens the courthouse. The claimant may bring an action for mandamus relief — the ordinary remedy against an official who has refused a ministerial duty.

Health coverage is a separate filing. Coverage under Section 103.001(d) requires the department’s own application form plus a statement from the comptroller that the claimant was found eligible.