US green card applicants face tougher 'public charge' test from Sept 18

7% of the 1.2 mn people who received green cards in 2023 were from India

Applicants seeking US permanent residency will face a tougher assessment from September 18, when new rules allowing immigration officers to consider a wider range of government benefits come into force.

 

The Trump administration has expanded the definition of “public charge”, a provision that can be used to refuse green card applications if an applicant is considered likely to become financially dependent on the US government.

 

According to a PTI report, the new rule finalised by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will consider benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance and certain other means-tested government support while assessing an applicant’s eligibility.

   

The change is significant for Indians, who remain among the largest groups receiving US green cards.

 

What changes from September 18?

 

Under the earlier framework, immigration officials largely considered two types of public benefits when making a public charge assessment: Cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term institutionalisation paid for by the government.

 

The new rule broadens the assessment considerably. USCIS officers will be able to consider an applicant’s receipt of means-tested public benefits, including food assistance, housing support and financial aid for college, among other similar benefits.

 

The rule applies to Form I-485 applications for adjustment of status that are postmarked or submitted electronically on or after September 18.

 

This means Indians already in the US and seeking to adjust their status to permanent residency will need to pay closer attention to the benefits they or their family members receive.

 

Family circumstances can also matter

 

The assessment will not be limited to the applicant’s own use of government benefits.

 

PTI reported that USCIS officers can consider several factors, including the applicant’s age, health, family circumstances, financial position and educational background. The use of public benefits by an applicant’s dependants may also be considered, even if the dependant has a different immigration status.

 

This gives immigration officers wider discretion in assessing whether an applicant could become a public charge in the future.

 

In cases where an officer determines that an applicant is inadmissible only because they are likely to become a public charge, USCIS may allow the applicant to post a public charge bond.

 

Immigration attorneys Cyrus Mehta and Damira Zhanatova, cited in the PTI report, said the rule could provide officers with greater discretion when deciding adjustment-of-status applications.

 

Why Indians need to watch the change

 

PTI reported that nearly 1.2 million people received green cards in 2023, of whom about 78,100, or 7 per cent, were from India.

 

Around 60 per cent of Indians who received green cards that year did so either as immediate relatives of US citizens or green-card holders, or through other family-based categories.

 

For such applicants, the expanded public charge test could become another factor to consider alongside the existing immigration eligibility requirements.

 

Not everyone is covered

 

The new rule does not apply to all immigration applicants. Several categories remain exempt, including refugees and asylees, certain Afghan and Iraqi nationals who worked with or for the US government, certain Cuban and Haitian entrants, special immigrant juveniles and victims of human trafficking.

 

Certain victims of qualifying criminal activity, some Violence Against Women Act self-petitioners and applicants for Temporary Protected Status are also among those exempt.

 

The wider rule could nevertheless have implications beyond individual green card applicants. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis cited by PTI estimated that 13.5 million Medicaid or CHIP enrollees live with at least one non-citizen, including 5.6 million US citizen children.

 

The analysis estimated that between 1.4 million and 4.1 million Medicaid and CHIP enrollees living with a non-citizen could leave these programmes because of concerns over the new public charge rule.

 

For Indian families navigating the US immigration system, the key change is therefore not simply which benefits are used, but how an applicant’s overall financial and family circumstances may be assessed from September 18.