"Public Charge" is a measure used by the United States government to deny a Green Card, visa or even the admission of people to the country.
Immigration officials in charge of approving residency or visa applications must determine if the applicant may become dependent on government benefits in the future. This is known as a “public charge.” However, not all applicants go through this process, that is, it is not a routine process for the immigration authorities.
The public charge rule has been applied for more than 100 years to deny visas to people who would become dependents of the government after obtaining immigration status. Currently, to apply this rule, immigration agents evaluate factors and determinants of applicants' lives, for example, age, income, educational level or access to government programs.
In this sense, the government considers that applicants with incomes 250% higher than the Federal Poverty guidelines are less likely to become a public charge.
There are some situations that supposedly affect the processes of obtaining legal residence related to public charge. For example, there is a belief that if family members of an applicant receive government benefits, this will affect their application. However, this information is not correct, since, when applying for legal residence, agents do not even ask if children or relatives are beneficiaries of government programs.
Additionally, the only programs that affect applicants with respect to public charge are:
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which provides financial resources to children and adults living with disabilities.
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which offers cash support to low-income families.
- Medicaid
A few years ago, the previous administration promoted a new public charge rule that made the residency application process more difficult, by requiring more forms and adding more criteria on public charge, which affected beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), public housing or rental subsidies at the federal level. However, since the entry of the Joe Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has returned to the previous interpretation, which only contemplates the three programs mentioned above.
