By Jeanne Morales Attorney
The new Public Charge rule goes into effect on February 24, 2020. It will affect people applying for permanent residence (green card) and for those who are already permanent residents who are re-entering the United States after travel. It could also affect those traveling on visas.
The Public Charge rule will deny persons who have used certain public benefits (like food stamps) as well as persons who “may” become a “public charge”. The officers making the decisions will be able to take into account the income, credit history, lack of private health insurance, age, the number of children that someone has, health, education, and work skills to determine if an individual is too high a risk to allow into the United States.
When someone applies for permanent residence, they will be required to submit an extra 18 page form with information about their financial situation. The form is Form I-944, and although USCIS does not charge a fee to file the form, attorneys will be charging to prepare the form. The form requires a lot of information and is quite complex; it is not recommended that someone try to prepare it without an attorney.
Some analysts are predicting that the Public Charge rule will result in a denial of half of all applications for permanent residence.
