The story

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced new guidance for evaluating whether green card applicants could become a public charge, defined as a person who is primarily dependent on the government. The changes take effect September 18 and replace the 2022 framework with a broader, discretionary evaluation standard for immigration officers.

Officers will use five factors to determine if applicants are inadmissible: age, health, family status as it relates to assets and resources and financial status, education, and skills. Public charge guidance allows immigration officials to consider whether a U.S. citizen child or other relative has used health or social service programs, even if the green card applicant has not. Officers may consider whether an applicant has received or is seeking means-tested public benefits including cash assistance for income maintenance, housing assistance, food stamps, and financial aid for college.

Immigration officers will still accept public charge bonds, a financial guarantee where individuals or companies pay a cash bond or post a surety bond with USCIS. Asylees, refugees, human trafficking victims, and special immigrant juveniles are not subject to public charge. Spouses, children, and parents of immigrants, priority workers, investors, and U.S. armed forces personnel are among specific groups subject to public charge. No single factor can independently establish that an applicant is likely to become a public charge, except when an applicant fails to provide a sufficient required Affidavit of Support.