The U.S. State Department is canceling immigrant visa interviews worldwide to allow consular officers to receive new training related to updated public charge rules.
Training is to take place within a week, according to the New York Times.
Nonimmigrant visa appointments have not been canceled.
Pre-interview processing of an immigrant visa application, which is mostly done by the National Visa Center, has not been put on hold.
Rescheduling Immigrant Visa Appointments
Immigrant visa applicants are receiving notices canceling their appointments. The Embassy or Consulate should write again later with the rescheduled appointment date. The State Department has not announced how long the applicants will need to wait for their rescheduled appointments.
What is the “Public Charge” Ground of Inadmissibility?
The public charge ground of inadmissibility allows a consular officer to deny an immigrant visa if they conclude that the applicant is likely at any time to become dependent on the government for either public cash assistance for income maintenance or long-term institutionalization at government expense.
In making that decision, the officer considers the applicant’s age, health, family situation, assets and finances, and education and skills. For family-sponsored immigrant visa applicants, the officer also considers any required Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. Having an adequate I-864 does not by itself guarantee that the applicant will overcome the public-charge ground; the officer still considers the applicant’s overall circumstances. See our firm’s Affidavit of Support Help Center.
Why Is This Happening Now?
First, the worldwide pause of immigrant visa interviews follows an August 21 federal court decision vacating a separate State Department policy that had suspended immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries based on public charge concerns.
Second, this month the agency began an immigrant visa public charge bond pilot program. Under this program, if an immigrant visa has been denied on the basis that the applicant is likely to become a public charge, an obligor may be allowed to post a bond in order to receive a visa; if, after immigrating to the United States, the foreign national receives public benefits in the form of cash assistance for income maintenance or long-term institutionalization at government expense, the bond would be deemed breached and the obligor would be liable for the amount of the bond. See Public Charge Bonds for Immigrant Visa Applicants and related USCIS Policy Manual provisions.
Third, the reported reason for the worldwide pause of immigrant visa interviews is to train officers regarding updates to public charge policies. But this does not appear to be in good faith. As of today, the administration has not updated the Foreign Affairs Manual section (9 FAM 302.8) where policies should be explained to officers and to the public. The administration has made no attempt to explain the cancellation of immigrant visa appointments, much less whether there is any emergency justifying departure from regular procedures to notify officers and the public of impending changes.
My Take
The overall direction of the administration’s public charge-related policies is an attack on U.S. families that want to be reunited in America with their spouses, parents, or children from overseas. That despite the fact that under current law:
- U.S. families must file with immigration authorities a binding contract (Form I-864) that (a) promises to support their relatives, (b) agrees that their relatives can sue them in court for support if they fail to provie it, and (c) agrees that the government can sue them in court for reimbursement of public assistance received by their relatives.
- If the relative were to become a public charge within five years after entry “from causes not affirmatively shown to have arisen since entry,” they would be subject to deportation under INA § 237(a)(5).
The 75-country ban is purely discrimination by the administration against families whose relatives are from countries the administration disfavors. There is zero consideration of the individual financial circumstances of the immigrant visa applicant.
The cancellation of immigrant visa appointments worldwide appears to be in bad faith in that it is intended to prolong U.S. families’ separation from their foreign relatives rather than to smoothly roll out information to the public and to officers about upcoming changes in interpretation of the public charge policies.
Leave a Reply