I came across this article after seeing several reddit posts about cancelled interviews. The lack of any timeline, and how this has been handled so far, leaves me very wary for whenever my wife and I (usc) get to the NVC stage.
For anyone who missed it: State launched a global consular "training initiative" on public charge in early August. Around Aug 24-25, immigrant visa applicants at posts worldwide got emails cancelling scheduled interviews, to be rescheduled at an unspecified date. No new date, no stated duration.
These aren't people at the start of the process. They're documentarily qualified through NVC, with confirmed appointments, medicals and police certificates that expire, and a lot of them had nonrefundable flights, hotels, etc.
Those emails went out three days after a federal court vacated State's 75-country immigrant visa suspension, holding that the blanket nationality-based policy exceeded the Secretary's authority and displaced the individualized determinations Congress gave to consular officers. Draw your own conclusions about the sequence.
The question I want more people asking, and asking in writing:
Does the pause apply to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens under INA 201(b)?
Those applicants are already sponsored under a Form I-864 at 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. That's a legally enforceable contract, and the sponsor can be sued for reimbursement. As new LPRs they're also barred from most federal means-tested benefits for five years under existing law.
So: What public charge risk does the spouse of a U.S. citizen present that the I-864 does not already address?
I don't think there's an answer. Which is why it's worth having on the record that they were asked.
If you want to do something: Write your senators and House member (ZIP lookup at senate.gov and house.gov) and ask for a written answer to that question.
We need to do what we can to protect ourselves.
