How USCIS Treats Benefit History for EB-1 and NIW Form I-485 Filings
Starting September 18, 2026, USCIS accepts only the 09/18/26 Form I-485 and reviews new filings under the totality of the circumstances. Unemployment insurance is not means-tested; a relative’s benefit, a child’s included, is not the applicant’s receipt; and need-based college aid received on or after that date may be considered but is not an automatic denial.
On September 18, 2026, USCIS published the 09/18/26 edition of Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. No grace period applies: the 01/20/25 and 09/04/26 editions will be rejected if postmarked or submitted electronically on or after that date. The 09/04/26 edition addressed a separate rule on children born to foreign government employees.
A final DHS rule rescinds the 2022 public charge regulations and takes effect the same day. Under Policy Alert PA-2026-09, filings postmarked or submitted between December 23, 2022, and before September 18, 2026, are adjudicated under the 2022 regulations. EB-1, EB-2, and NIW applicants who adjust status in the United States file Form I-485. Priority workers and professionals with advanced degrees or aliens of exceptional ability face public charge review unless an exemption applies.
What officers must consider
USCIS says officers must weigh five statutory factors: age; health; family status; assets, resources, and financial status; and education and skills. They may also weigh other relevant factors, including means-tested public benefits such as cash assistance, housing assistance, food stamps, or college financial aid. Decisions are case by case under the totality of the circumstances.
Where Form I-864 is required, officers may consider a sufficient affidavit, though it alone does not guarantee approval. Most EB-1A and NIW self-petitioners need not file Form I-864 unless a relative filed the immigrant petition or holds a qualifying ownership interest in the petitioner.
There is no statutory or regulatory definition of means-tested public benefits here. USCIS generally treats a benefit as means-tested when eligibility turns on income or assets below a threshold; receipt occurs only if the applicant is listed as a beneficiary. Officers may nevertheless consider the applicant’s own application for, or certification or approval to receive, such a benefit.
How common benefit categories fit that guidance
Unemployment insurance. USCIS states that earned benefits such as Social Security and Medicare are not means-tested, and that unemployment insurance is similarly not means-tested. UI is therefore not receipt of a means-tested public benefit, though it may still appear as income under the financial-status factor.
Academic fellowships, RA/TA stipends, and research grants. USCIS does not name these programs. In our view, a stipend paid for teaching or research, or a grant awarded to an institution on research merit, generally would not fit USCIS’s description of a benefit tied to the applicant’s income or assets falling below a threshold. Need-based tuition aid might. Officers decide case by case.
Benefits received by a spouse or child. USCIS does not attribute means-tested benefits received by the applicant’s relatives, including children, and officers should not count a benefit the applicant applied for on another person’s behalf as the applicant’s own receipt. If a child or other person the applicant must support receives benefits because the applicant’s income or assets fell below a threshold, officers should consider that fact under the financial-status factor. That differs from counting the relative’s benefit as the applicant’s own receipt.
Need-based college aid, including Pell Grants. USCIS lists financial aid for postsecondary education as an example of a benefit that could be means-tested. For benefits received on or after September 18, 2026, USCIS says it will consider any and all means-tested public benefits; before that date, only cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term institutionalization at government expense. Apart from the lack of a sufficient Form I-864 where one is required, no single factor is outcome determinative.
Applicants with mixed histories should document their employment, tax, and academic records and complete the 09/18/26 Form I-485 accurately. See the I-485 filing eligibility chart from Liu & Associates, P.C. for current dates.
Applicants preparing an EB-1A or NIW I-140, or assessing I-485 readiness, can request a free case evaluation from Liu & Associates, P.C. (Liu & Associates, P.C.).