The seemingly never-ending public charge saga continues, with the pendulum swinging the other direction. Public charge is now “off” again, at least in the states of CA, DC, ME, OR, PA, and WA. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit partially upheld two District Court injunctions on the public charge rule, declining to make the injunctions applicable nationwide like the lower court decisions had, but affirming them in their limited scope to the plaintiff states (CA and WA). As such, the new public charge rules do not apply to greencard applicants living in the aforementioned states, and they should not be required to submit the devilish Form I-944 (and its voluminous and onerous supporting documentation) with their greencard applications. We are still awaiting definitive guidance from USCIS concerning the impact of these court decisions.
The full opinion can be found here.
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