Hi, everyone. I'm coming to you today again with great news. I'm so excited that recently I've
been able to provide updates that are great news. I love being able to do that.
Before we dive into exactly what the great news is as it relates to public charge,
I would like to introduce myself and our firm.
I'm Attorney Megan Pastrana of Corado-Pastrana, the immigration firm for couples and we regularly
post updates on our YouTube channel and in our Facebook group. We know how important it is for
you to have up-to-date information as you navigate through your immigration journey. If you haven't
already subscribed to our channel, please do so now. Also, if you could give this video a thumbs up
we'd really appreciate it so YouTube will share it with others who can benefit from the information.
What is this great news as it relates to public charge?
Just today, I wanted to jump on and make this video. I took a break a few minutes from casework
to be able to share this great news with you. What happened is that the Biden
administration withdrew the appeal that was pending in the Supreme Court for public charge
that had been filed by immigration. For those of you
who have been going through an immigration process for a while now, you know about public charge and
the changes that came along with it last year.
But for those of you who are new to your immigration journey or if you're not quite
familiar, I'd like to go over a little bit of a background of exactly what is public charge,
what happened over the past year, why is this good
news and how it impacts you. I'll be going over all of that information.
Public charge is an area of immigration law that's existed for a long time. It's an area of
immigration law that says an immigrant can't be a public charge. They have to be self-sufficient.
That's been around for a long time and we've always filed a form I-864
affidavit of support to prove that the immigrant, the petitioner, would be self-sufficient
and that they would not become a public charge. What happened though on February 24th of 2020
was [that] changes were implemented to public charge to introduce a whole new form: form I-944.
A very long form that was very invasive and also has been referred to by many as an invisible wall
and a wealth test that had been implemented in the immigration process.
It was asking for bank account information and credit score and debts
and assets and so many things that were beyond what public charge has been for so long.
What had happened then after February 24th of 2020 is there was quite a roller coaster of appeals.
For those of you who have been through your immigration journey or
have been going through an immigration journey, you know it was quite a roller coaster.
The form I-944 was required and then it wasn't and then it was and then it wasn't.
To summarize, that change occurred in February of 2020.
We had a brief reprieve there and in July, we were excited and we thought
the I-944 would be removed for a while. Then the government appealed.
What the Biden administration has done is
there was an appeal before the Supreme Court about public charge. That appeal
had allowed that form I-944 to stay in existence and the Biden administration withdrew that appeal.
They did that today and also we're seeing that the government is wanting to withdraw the appeals
that are pending in the other circuit courts. Why this is good news is if it continues on this
path, this I-944 and these changes to public charge
will hopefully be disappearing. We have to wait for USCIS to provide
an announcement and guidance about this decision today to withdraw this appeal. But the good news
that we want to share with all of you is that we're hoping very soon that we
will see USCIS make an announcement. That guidance will come out and that we can say goodbye to form
I-944. We will also be so very happy about that. Please stay tuned. We will definitely be providing
updates as we know more information so you know exactly what's going on and how that
would impact your case. We need to wait again for that guidance. If you're in the process
of filing your application or if you have a request for evidence for that form, you will
hopefully be receiving guidance soon from USCIS to know whether or not
we can say goodbye to it. Hopefully, that was helpful and that information
provided you with some good news for your day. We'll talk soon. Thanks for watching.