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K1 Visa Cambodia: New Public Charge Rule

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing K-1 Fiancée Visas. We are specifically discussing them in the context of those Americans who have a Khmer fiancée whom they are processing a case with through the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 

We have other videos on this channel which specifically discuss the new Public Charge Rule in a more broad and generalize context. This video specifically is discussing it for those who are bringing a Cambodian fiancée over from Cambodia processing through the Embassy in Cambodia, then coming to the United States, filing for adjustment of status to Green Card status. 

So for now, this new Public Charge Rule, the brunt of this is not going to be hitting the applicant necessarily while abroad in K-1 status. K-1s are kind of an odd duck in the sense that they are there not exactly Immigrant Visas but they are not Non-immigrant Visas in the traditional sense. They are basically a dual intent Visa if you will insofar as the applicant can have this dual intent of "I may go back, or I may go to the United States and live there indefinitely." I am going over there in order to meet my fiancé and presumptively marry in the United States. There has to be an intention to get married. There has to be an intention to immigrate but if that doesn't happen so long as that person leaves the United States it is sort of a "no harm, no foul". So it is a Non-immigrant Visa but in many ways it is treated as an Immigrant Visa and in many ways it is treated as Non-immigrant Visa. So it is kind of in there in the middle. 

That being said, one of the main things that has changed with respect to the analysis of the Public Charge Rule is it has first of all it has created a lot of discretion with respect to the Adjudicating Officer. They have to determine if in their mind they believe this person will in the future become a drain on State resources basically. Start going on means-tested benefits AKA welfare things like SNAP, TANF, various Section 8 housing things, Medicaid; these kinds of things. In the past, this sort of discretionary "do you believe this person could prospectively go on those benefits?" that really didn't exist in the analysis previously, now it does.

The other thing that did not exist before was the heightened threshold when it came to issues associated with income and assets. Basically the American sponsor has to show they can support their fiancée come spouse in the United States and they need to show that they have income and/or assets to do so in order to provide support. In the past, it was a lower threshold. That threshold has been raised.  Now in each case, the given facts of that case is you know they are all going to be different so I am not going to get into specifics of how this is all going to work. It is not a terrible idea to contact a competent legal professional who is well versed in Immigration matters because the Public Charge Rule notwithstanding the fact that K-1 fiancées are not going to bear the brunt of this necessarily during the process of getting a K-1 Visa but on the back end of dealing with the adjustment of status for example the I-944 form which is the Declaration of Self-Sufficiency form. These kinds of documents are going to be rather onerous and yeah during the adjustment process I think this is going to get a lot harder than it was in the past. Again seeking professional legal advice is probably a good idea for those who are having issues with this.