Over the last month the Department of State (DOS) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have issued new announcements related to the public charge ground of inadmissibility to the U.S.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) permits the government to deny a visa, admission, or adjustment to status to an individual if it determines that this person is “likely at any time to become a public charge” (i.e., to become dependent on public governmental assistance)
In 2022, the Biden Administration limited the government’s interpretation and use of the public charge ground of admissibility to individuals who were “primarily dependent on the government for subsistence” as demonstrated by their (1) receipt of government cash assistance for income maintenance (e.g. SSI, TANF) or (2) institutionalization for long-term care at government expense. Other types of popular benefits, such as health, food, and housing benefits, were not considered in a public charge determination.
DOS Cable on Public Charge Evaluations
On or about Nov. 6, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a cable message to U.S. diplomats instructing them to consider certain chronic medical conditions, including obesity, as a reason to deny a U.S. visa to foreign nationals applying for admission to the U.S. According to an unofficial copy of the message, the cable emphasizes the current Trump Administration’s policy to ensure that “no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.” It also advises that the agency must be vigilant in minimizing visa issuance to individuals likely to become a public charge prior to arrival in the U.S. because removing foreign nationals from the U.S. after entry is a “lengthy, expensive, and difficult process.”
The cable notifies consular officers that they may ask visa applicants provide any information they reasonably believe necessary to determine whether the public charge ground applies, and may consider age, health, family status, assets, resources and financial status, education and skills, and any current or past receipt of public cash assistance or long-term government-funded institutionalization in making their determination.
The cable also instructs officers to consider certain aspects of an applicant’s health that are not officially classified as a Class B medical condition (which is specifically defined in government regulations). The effect of this instruction broadens the scope of medical conditions to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, breathing problems such as asthma and sleep apnea, clinical depression and anxiety, and joint problems, among others.
USCIS Proposed Rule on Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility
On November 19, 2025, USCIS released a new proposed rule to rescind the previous 2022 public charge regulations promulgated under the Biden Administration (“2022 Final Rule”). The proposed rule suggests that the 2022 regulations were “unduly restrictive” and hindered the Dept. of Homeland Security’s (DHS’) ability to “make accurate, precise, and reliable determinations of whether certain aliens are likely at any time to become a public charge.” The proposed rule’s aim is to provide DHS agencies with much wider discretion to assess all circumstances and facts related to a foreign national’s background to determine whether he/she is likely to rely on government assistance after entry to the U.S.
In the proposed rule, USCIS implies that the definitions included in the previous 2022 Final Rule were too narrow to properly allow the government to determine whether someone was likely to become a public charge. Under the 2022 Final Rule, officers could consider only specific enumerated factors to evaluate admissibility related to public charge determination. The 2022 Final Rule also prohibited officers from considering certain widely used public benefits in their determinations, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid, and other supplemental or special-purpose benefits, and also precluded officers from considering an individual’s disability.
The new proposed rule states that it intends to expand that criteria to allow officers to consider any factors or information relevant to the public charge determination, including individualized case-specific factors, and any “empirical data” relevant to the applicant’s self-sufficiency. Rather than confining officers to review only certain factors and certain types of benefits, the new proposed rule references the “inherently discretionary nature of the public charge inadmissibility determination” and stresses that an officer should make determinations in his or her opinion, and may, in their own discretion, determine what factors are relevant to any particular case. The proposed rule indicates that the previous narrower criteria incentivized immigration to the U.S. only for government benefits.
The proposed rule issued last month does not include provisions formally replacing the 2022 Final Rule. Rather, it would serve as rescission of the 2022 Final Rule. Specifically, it proposes eliminating several definitions included in the 2022 Final Rule, which has the effect of expanding the type of information an officer can use to make a public charge determination. For example, it removes the definition of “likely at any time to become a public charge,” which was defined as “likely at any time to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence,” to allow for wider interpretation of this phrase.
The proposed rule would also eliminate the definitions of “public cash assistance for income maintenance,” “long-term institutionalization at government expense,” and “Receipt (of public benefits)” contained in the 2022 Final Rule. The elimination of these definitions would allow an officer to consider any means-tested public benefit, and consider, potentially, the mere existence of an application for benefits or approval for a future benefit (rather than actual receipt of the benefit) as evidence of an applicant’s likelihood to become a public charge.
The comment period for the proposed rule will be open for 30 days and comments must be submitted before December 19, 2025.
The overall effect of these recent announcements and developments issued by DOS and DHS is likely to be that USCIS adjudicators and consular officers will rely on more subjective, discretionary factors when determining whether an applicant is likely to become a public charge, and, as a result, more individuals may be denied visas or other immigration benefits on the grounds that they are inadmissible to the U.S. on public charge grounds.
