Overview
- The Department of Homeland Security finalized the public‑charge regulation that rescinds the 2022 rule and will take effect Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, requiring updated Form I‑485 editions for filings on or after that date.
- USCIS will offer a public‑charge bond to certain applicants only after issuing a Notice of Intent to Deny; the bond process uses Form I‑945, rejects unsolicited bonds, and sets a $1,000 minimum with final amounts set case by case.
- The bond may be a cash deposit held in a U.S. Treasury account that earns interest or a surety bond from an authorized company, and it remains in force indefinitely with USCIS able to find breach if the immigrant receives covered benefits while the bond is active.
- Officers will again apply a discretionary totality‑of‑circumstances test that weighs age, health, family composition, assets, education and skills and projects likely use of specific programs up to five years, with any projection over $100,000 treated as a strongly negative factor.
- Applicants who filed Form I‑485 before Sept. 18 will be adjudicated under the 2022 standard, and roughly 200,000 Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries face continued legal and work‑authorization uncertainty after their TPS expired on Sept. 9, 2026 while DHS reviews the program.