US Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS) has, on the evening of October 9, released the long-awaited form updates to the I-485, I-864/I-864EZ, I-129, and I-539 forms as well as the new I-944 Declaration of Self0-Sufficiency form.  From next Tuesday, October 15, these will be the only versions of these forms accepted in spite of their late release (USCIS was only originally only planning to release these right on the 15^th, but likely did so early in light of the pending AILA lawsuit on the matter).  Now-current versions of the forms postmarked after October 14 (Columbus Day, a federal holiday with no postal service) will not be accepted

The release of the forms only two business days earlier than the October 15^th date on which they will be required does little to ease the burden on those about to file adjustment, work visa, or certain other cases (employers, foreign nationals, and lawyers alike).  Several days will normally be required for form preparation as well as for hard-copy documents to go back and forth for signature.  However, USCIS may have cynically sought to weaken the pending AILA lawsuit seeking to enjoin the instantaneous introduction of and requirement for these new form versions.

Further, the I-129 form in particular is troubling in that it asks an employer to certify the status of a sponsored foreign national with regard to prior public benefit applications and receipt – information of which the employer can hardly be certain even after asking this of the foreign national employee.  Should the employee tell an attorney that they have received benefits but that they don’t wish the employer to know this, it’s questionable whether any attorney could ethically continue representation – effectively robbing both parties of a right to counsel.

The new I-944 form is 18 pages long and requires incredibly invasive personal financial information, including credit reporting and information about any benefits received.  The stated expected time to complete the form is given as 4.5 hours.

We expect the existing court challenges to implementation of the new public charge regulation not to go away, but to expand considerably.