T&R Immigration News Alert

August 6, 2026

This news alert highlights several significant immigration policy developments that could affect both immigrant visa applicants and applicants for adjustment of status to permanent resident status. We provide summaries of: (1) DHS’s new public charge rule, (2) the State Department’s pilot program allowing consular officers to require public charge bonds for certain immigrant visa applicants, and (3) USCIS’s updated policy authorizing officers to deny applications without first issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) when required initial evidence is missing.
 

DHS IMPLEMENTS PUBLIC CHARGE CHANGE

 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule in July rescinding its 2022 regulation under the Biden administration on public charge inadmissibility determinations. This new rule applies to applications to adjust status to permanent resident.

 

What is the public charge determination? 

 

The government checks with every permanent resident status (green card) applicant whether the person is likely to depend on public support. This determination is not new, but the application of the determination is now changing.

 

What are the primary changes?

 

  • The new final rule rescinds the prior rule that had a structured framework for assessing public charge of what counts and doesn’t count towards public charge without codifying anything new, leaving much now to adjudicator discretion.
  • Food stamps, Medicaid, and housing vouchers can now count towards public charge, whereas before it was only cash aid and long-term nursing home care. 
  • The government funding or benefit does not need to be the applicant’s main form of support for the government to determine that the applicant will become a public charge, which was in the prior rule. 
  • Removes a list of exemptions and waivers for the public charge ground of inadmissibility related to various groups and types of applicants.
  • Refugees, asylees, VAWA applicants, and some other humanitarian cases remain exempt.

 

Elimination of the more structured assessment for public charge allows immigration officers to use their discretion to make case-specific assessments based on the “totality of the circumstances” of an individual applicant when making a public charge inadmissibility determination.

 

Effective date: The final rule takes effect on September 18, 2026. USCIS will soon publish a revised Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status in line with the new regulation. Applications filed before this date will still be assessed under the current rule. Benefits received before this date will not be counted, but ongoing use past the effective date can be factored into the determination.

 

We will continue to monitor how the new rule is being implemented.

PILOT PROGRAM TO REQUIRE A BOND FOR IMMIGRANT VISAS

 

To go along with the new DHS rule for how USCIS will make public charge determinations, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced a pilot program on August 5th that allows U.S. consular officers to require immigrant visa applicants to apply for a “public charge” bond. The application for a public charge bond is made with USCIS. This would be required to overcome a consular officer’s determination that an applicant is likely to become a public charge upon entry as an immigrant, meaning that the consular officer believes that the intending immigrant will rely on public assistance or the government for financial support.

 

If determined that a bond is needed, the consular officer will assess the amount of the bond. The announced policy does not give any indication of the amount of the bond or even a range for it. Then, the applicant would need to apply for the bond through USCIS by filing Form I-945 with the amount of the bond and the document issued notifying the applicant that they are subject to the bond.

 

The full text can be found here.

 

We will also be monitoring how this policy will be implemented and provide updates.

USCIS CAN NOW DENY WITHOUT ISSUING RFE / NOID

 

USCIS updated its policy manual on August 5th to authorize its examiners the ability to deny immigration applications without having to issue requests for evidence (RFE) or notices of intent to deny (NOID) if the required initial evidence is not included with the initial submission. The policy can be found here. While this has always been possible, prior administrations encouraged examiners to issue RFEs to gather more information before issuing a denial.

 

Typically, if the USCIS examiner reviewing an application determines that sufficient evidence was not submitted, they would issue an RFE to which the applicant would have 12 weeks to file a response. However, the issuance of the RFE is discretionary, and this new policy or guidance gives USCIS examiners full authority to deny a petition or application outright if they don’t believe that sufficient evidence was provided. Further, the examiners have discretion to set the deadline for a response to the RFE with 12 weeks being the maximum.

 

The new policy indicates that this will allow the USCIS to streamline its adjudication procedures and weed out any frivolous applications. However, for those who have filed petitions and applications with USCIS over the years, and especially recently, it is common to get an RFE or a NOID that states that insufficient evidence was provided or no evidence was provided when, in fact, a plethora of evidence was provided.

 

It will be important now to over-document every petition and application that is filed with USCIS to avoid the risk of an outright denial. It will also be important to file as early as possible so that if there is a denial there is time to possibly refile.

 

T&R will work with clients to always ensure the best possible outcome.