Things to Keep in Mind: The Public Charge Rules

Seattle Immigration Lawyer’s Updates:

The “public charge” rules were designed to identify people who may depend on the government as their main source of support. Whether a person is likely to become a public charge is typically made at two points: 1) when the person applies for admission to the U.S., and 2) when the person applies for lawful permanent resident status.

When seeking a visa or green card, a test is applied where an immigration officer considers the applicant’s age (specifically if an applicant is under 18 or over 61), health, family status, income and resources, education and skills, and affidavit of support.

Under the “income test”, having family income below 125 % of the Federal Poverty Level (specifically, it is $31,375 annually for a family of four in 2019) would count against an individual in the public charge determination. Heavily positive weight is applied only to households earning over 250 % of the Federal Poverty Level ($64,375 annually for a family of four in 2019). 

Whether a non-citizen has health conditions that could require extensive treatment in the future, or that could affect a person’s ability to work, attend school, and does not have access to private health insurance or other resources to pay for treatment, it will be weighed as heavily negative.

The final rule also considers your household size, including immediate family members as well as anyone else to whom you provide at least half of the support.

The final rule looks at whether the applicant has adequate education and skills to obtain or maintain employment with sufficient income. It considers whether the person has a history of employment (e.g. 3 years of tax returns), a high school degree or higher education, occupational skills, certificates or licenses.

As for the affidavit of support, the final rule considers whether the sponsor is likely to support an applicant, based on the relationship to the immigrant, whether the sponsor is residing in the same household as the applicant, whether the sponsor has sponsored others too.

The new rules were set to go into effect on Tuesday, October 15, 2019. On October 11, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York enjoined DHS and USCIS from “enforcing, applying, or treating as effective” the DHS public charge final rule. This is a temporary block until the issue is fully litigated in court as DHS is expected to file an appeal on this case.

Please note, this post does not include all of the details in the public charge rule and should not be considered as a legal advice.

Sources: USCIS.gov; The Protecting Immigrant New Yorkers Task Force

CCL Immigration Practice page