Hello, hello, everybody, and welcome to our Thursday live. This is... about 1:30 here
in California. And I wanted to, in this live, go over the changes that are happening right
now with the public charge rule. There's a lot of confusion going on. And I'm getting a lot
of questions from our community. I have seen the comments, you’re asking about the public
charge rules. I want to jump in here, live, just to give you an update. In this live,
I'm going to focus on exactly what's happening with the public charge rule. What happened?
And why are we having these changes? We're going to talk about Form I-944. What's happening with
this form? Do we need it? We don't need it. What happens with petitions that were already filed
before March 9, what's happening with those cases? And specifically, I have a lot of questions from
our viewers and our clients, what if you filed before you have a request for evidence? What do
we do with those? We have some updates from USCIS and I wanted to be able to bring them to you. So,
those of you that are watching live, make sure that... if you're here for the first time,
make sure you subscribe to our channel. And if you know somebody who may be interested and benefit
from this information, make sure you share this video. And we'll start in literally one second.
All right. All right. So, welcome. Welcome, everybody. Those that are joining us right now,
first of all, let me know where you’re from, type in your name in the comments. And as always,
we've got a lot of our usual viewers. Monica, Beurku, Wise, I'll get your questions as well.
Typically, I go live either late in the evening, so I can accommodate
a few of our international viewers. But today, I just wanted to jump in and be
able to answer your question. So, I've got some good notes for you here. First of all,
the good news is that effective immediately, the public charge rule that was brought in 2018, is no
longer in place. And you see officially on their website... I'll share the screen also to show you
what they're saying... USCIS officially stopped enforcing the public charge rule as well. Again,
the reason why it's happening is we've got a few successful challenges, litigation in different
courts. And Biden's administration essentially stopped the government's opposition to this
enforcement. And so the latest that happened in the Supreme Court, they announced that they're
going to pursue this case. And as a result, a few other of the district courts also dropped
these cases, and USCIS officially announced, because when it was first introduced, we didn't
know what USCIS is going to do, but now, we know that it's official that that rule is now gone.
So, a lot of the questions that I'm getting is, what does this actually mean? What does it mean
that the public charge rule is eliminated? It means that the USCIS is not applying anymore,
the 2019 very harsh rule. If you remember, they introduced, obviously, new forms, Form I-944.
They had a whole set of five criteria, different tests, based on your education, health,
economical, things it was quite hard, and included also many other factors that
would make somebody subject to public charge. If you remember, they had a formula. So, if you use
benefits for a year, for 12 months straight in the past three years, you will be disqualified. And
that created a lot of issues for people that want to sponsor family members. So, that rule
is gone. And what happens is that they're going back to the original regulations, from
‘99, essentially, which requires, you still have to obviously prove that you're not going to be a
burden on the government. But you don't have to go through all these
draconian requirements, you need to basically go back to where we used to and submit Form I-864.
Make sure that you meet the 125% of the poverty guidelines, depending on your household size,
and that's usually how we used to do it for years and that's going back too, now. So,
also, under the new rule that was imposed under Trump, those requirements also apply to people
that are changing status inside the United States, certain tourists, certain work visas, Forms like
I-539. I-129 for work visas, those included some sections, specifically with questions
about public charge, all these requirements are not are now gone as well, which is great.
So, in practical terms, people ask me how it's going to work in practical terms. So, basically,
the USCIS is not going to be applying the 2019 rule to any applications filed on or
after March 29, 2021. So, any applications that are filed on or after March 29, 2021,
they're not subject to that rule. And so, they're not requiring any more people to submit the Form
I-944, or any of the supporting documents. Also, a lot of questions at the beginning,
what about people that did file before but now, you, guys, are getting requests for evidence, you
have RFEs that’s asking you to submit financial documents, maybe some mistakes in the Form I-944
any of these RFEs, if you received an RFE, and the RFE is specifically... in fact, we can look at
what USCIS is saying. So, if you look at their statement, it says, if you received an RFE
or a NOID, you don't have to worry about it anymore. You don't have to respond to the
specific RFE, if it only concerns the public charge. However, if you have an RFE that
has other aspects in it, so, for example, asking for your birth certificate or other information,
you still need to respond that, but you don't have to worry about the public charge component of that
RFE. And also, if you have documents that are applicable to other forms, like, as I mentioned
before, I-539, I-129, any of these documents that require information about the public charge,
are no longer required. So, right now, yeah, this is what it says on the website. So, the
good news is that USCIS, right now, is updating their website, they're probably going to remove
and eliminate form I-944. But I know that we had a lot of questions from people, for example, we have
questions, people are asking whether you actually need to continue to file these documents if
you're applying for your immigrant visa from the US Embassy abroad. Now, remember, guys,
that the public charge rule was already frozen as of July of last year for the State Department. So,
for the State Department, we didn't have to worry about it for quite some time right now.
But inside the United States, we still did need that. People were asking whether you still need
to submit I-64 and supporting documents at tax returns and things like that? Yes, absolutely.
That has not changed. So, remember, under the ‘99 rule, which is from 1999, which is the
original rule, which we had for years, all you had to do is if you wanted to immigrate,
you had to prove that you were financially able to sponsor your relatives, you still
have to do that right now, you have to file Form 864, that has not changed.
But the requirements of the Form I-944, and all the supporting documents, and all the tests
that you have to do, those are gone. And they were very difficult for people to quantify. So,
just wanted to kind of summarize that. Let me take a few more questions from you, guys.
Let me see here. A few questions here.
And you can keep posting your question. I'm going to try to answer them live. But also, if I won't
be able to get to all of them, we'll be able to get to them in the comments. So, Tahabib Zero,
Your from Michigan, your husband is in Yemen, he in Turkey waiting for his
interview… wait a second, your question was... so he's banned under 10052.
So, once again, like I said, this is something that is still pending because that ban is still
effective. This is for the Hs and J1s. But it's got nothing to do with the public charge. This
is just an entry ban. And the same thing for the other travel bans that we talked about before.
Sultan, “NVC said that they're going to hold my interview after 120 days.” Your remarks.
So, once again, right now, NVC is trying to push those cases as best as they can. But remember that
it really depends on the respective consulate or embassy. The embassy is not accepting cases,
for whatever reason, staffing wise, like I mentioned in a previous video, then NVC
is not going to be able to send your case. You have to remain pushing them as well. I actually
have a question in the previous video, another comment where people said that what happened
with cases that were denied previously because of public charge. So, again, if you're 45 was denied,
it depends on when it was denied. If you're still within the 30-day window, you can file a motion
to reopen most likely they're going to reopen your case, and you'll be able to continue adjudicating
if it was just because of the public charge. However, if your case was denied months ago, and
your case is pretty much done, unfortunately, you’re going to have to refile your Adjustment
of Status. And, and you're not going to be worried about public charge. But I know quite a few people
had issues with that. And unfortunately, they were denied because they wouldn't be able to support
the documents. You just have to refile because that rule is no longer in place. Let me see here.
Okay, here we go. We have Christina. “This public charge was a headache to us. What will happen to
those who already filed Form I-944?” Really good question. So, as I mentioned at the beginning of
the video, if you already filed I-944, it doesn't matter. The USCIS, they're just going to ignore
it. They're not going to issue RFE, and going to ask you for any documents. And at the time of the
interview, the officer is not going to go over on any I-944 with you, they're just going to ignore
it, right? If you already filed it, it's just going to stay in your file, but they're not going
to be acknowledging it, their not going to be questioning you. Because remember, people who went
to interviews during the time that public charge rule was in effect, you have to present documents,
you have to explain, you have to go to see if you use any of these benefits, you have to explain
and it could have resulted in denial of your case. But it's no longer the case anymore.
Now, remember that if you are overseas right now, this is not an issue, it has not been an issue for
a while. It's mostly an issue inside the United States for people that are filing their cases
inside the United States. Let me get another question here from
Night, “Can a person stay on a 45 receipt without any valid non-immigrant visa?”
Maybe maxed out and start working on off DD?” Yeah, absolutely. As long as you file
the Adjustment of Status while you were in legal status, and then your non-immigrant visa expires,
you can still stay in the United States. And remember, if you're married to a US citizen,
the financial requirements are still needed to be met. But right now, things are going to get much
easier for a lot of people that were worried about if they qualify. Once again, guys,
keep posting your questions in the comments, I promise to get to you after the live. Just want to
come on live right now because I'm getting literally tons of messages in our text messages at
the office. And again, if you have any questions for me, use here, go use this number 619-483-4549.
Click, text the number, and book a consultation, because I know a lot of people have issues with
RFEs, cases that were denied recently, what to do with this public charge thing, people that were
holding off to file their cases because they were worried that they're not going to qualify. Well,
right now. You can start reconsidering filing and finding a solution for your case. So, well,
that's really what I wanted to do today, just going to answer those main questions because
people are concerned about... and to verify that in fact, it is true, the public charge is gone.
It is, in fact, on the immigration website, you can see it. It's not a dream. They have
an update that says on March 9, 2021, the Seventh Circuit lifted its stay in the US Supreme Court,
Northern District of Illinois. And so, essentially, right now, the public charge is gone.
I will be back with more videos this week. We've got some cool updates for you for
embassies and consulates. We had to make sure if you haven't seen the last video of Dan about
success cases, two approved expedited cases from Manila, Moscow, and Islamabad. Those were huge.
And yeah, we'll keep updating you. So, again, if you’re here for the first time,
don't forget to subscribe to our channel, click the notification bell and give us a big like
so YouTube will always be able to share the videos with more people just like you. And, as always, I
truly, truly appreciate all your support. There are so many of you who send me messages,
who call me, email me, and thanked me for having this channel. This channel would not be anything
without you, guys. You're the main reason why I'm doing this. So, thanks a lot for watching. Great
news in public charge. I'm so relieved. It was the worst rule ever. So many people were affected by
it. And now, finally, we have some justice. So, thanks, guys, have a beautiful Thursday. And I'll
see you, guys, in our next video in our channel. Looking forward to more. Have a beautiful day.