California Immigration Lawyer Blog

I recently wrote a post on whether the receipt of health insurance through San Francisco Healthy Families made that person a public charge. I concluded that it did not.

Soon after I wrote that post, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") issued some new guidance on the definition of public charge. It is helpful because it lists many programs and specifies what does and not support a public charge definition. For instance, it clarifies that the receipt of unemployment compensation, Title II Social Security benefits and Veteran's benefits do not make an individual a public charge.

USCIS issued guidance on public charge determinations on October 20, 2009.

As readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of the internet virtual reality world, Second Life®. I plan to write many more posts about Second Life over the next year as I will be the incoming president of the Second Life Bar Association with my term beginning in February 2010.

For now, I would like to highlight an upcoming conference that will be held on Second Life that is being sponsored by the Second Life Bar Association and the Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association. The conference will be about practicing law in a virtual world. It will take place on November 14, 2009 from 12:00-3:00 p.m., (pacific standard time). There will be two sessions divided into broad topic areas led by lawyers who are members of our association and experienced in issues relating to virtual law:

Session 1: Practice Issues Unique to the Virtual World Setting

Daniel Perry – ‘DanielPerry Laa’
Virtual Law Teams

James Bryce Clark -'JamieBryce Infinity'
Privacy and Security

Stephen Davies – ‘Little Gray’
Dispute Resolution, Civil Rights

and

Session 2: Substantive Issues in a Virtual World

Craig Abrahamson – ‘Lexis Looming’ Contracts and Business Transactions

Stephen Wu – ‘Legal Writer’ Intellectual Property Rights

The conference is free but you do need to RSVP ahead of time. For more details about the conference and how to register, you may check the "Practicing Law in a Virtual World" conference page of the SL Bar Association's NIng website. Hope to see you there.

I previously wrote a post about the implementation of a San Francisco city identification card. Now Oakland is moving toward implementation of a similar plan.

On October 20, the Oakland City council will be considering a staff plan on how to implement the municipal identification card

The Oakland City council meeting will take place at 7:00 p.m., at Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. You can find out more information about the Oakland municipal identification card on a website called Oakland City ID Card. (The website is sponsored by a coalition of organizations in support of the identification card and is not an official city website.) It has links to all articles about the identification card and reports on developments on this issue.

On October 2, 2009, The U.S. State Department launched the 2011 Diversity Visa Program. Between October 2 to November 30, 2009, applicants from countries around the world may register for a chance at winning one of the 55,000 immigrant visas that are drawn randomly from all eligible applicants. The State Department will notify all successful applicants between May - July 2010 of their selection. Applicants will then be able to start the visa application process in October 2010.

The State Department has announced that during the first week of registration, they have received over 900,000 entries. This reflects a 63% increase in applications over the same period last year.

For information and instructions on how to register for the lottery, go to the State Department's lottery website: http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/

I previously wrote about how the health care and immigration debate has hit Vallejo. Specifically the Solano County Grand jury had recommended that funding by the Solano County Board of Supervisors to La Clinica De La Raza be limited to only those residents of the county who could prove legal residence or citizenship. (See also my previous post on Update on proposal to limit funding to La Clinic De La Raza.) On October 6, 2009, the Board submitted their response to the Grand Jury's report. I am happy to write that the Board has chosen not to follow the Grand Jury's recomendation and will leave all funding to the clinic intact. I commend the Board for making this decision. The health of all residents of Solano County should be a priority for all of us.

I recently had a client inquire as to whether her enrollment in San Francisco's "Healthy Families" health insurance plan would endanger her green card application because she might be considered a "public charge." I originally thought it would be a problem but it turned out not to be.

San Francisco has a health insurance program called "Healthy Families." It is for uninsured children and low income individuals living in San Francisco. Members pay a small monthly fee and the program is partly funded by the government.

Under Section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), an individual seeking admission to the United States or seeking to adjust status to that of an individual lawfully admitted for permanent residence (green card) is inadmissible if the individual, "at the time of application for admission or adjustment of status, is likely at any time to become a public charge."

An individual becomes a "public charge" when he or she is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense.

USCIS has a very extensive article on their website that discusses what type of benefits, if received, would and would not be relevant in a determination concerning public charge. Non-cash benefits (other than institutionalization for long-term care) are generally not taken into account for purposes of a public charge determination. Specifically regarding San Francisco Healthy Families, USCIS states that Healthy Families benefits "are not considered for public charge purposes."

In an interview with the New York Times, about comprehensive immigration reform, the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Alejandro Mayorkas, indicated that the agency was making plans to accommodate the filing of more visa applications although no new laws have been passed. He stated that the goal was to be able to rapidly process a large increase in applications if some kind of comprehensive immigration reform bill is passed by Congress.

He told the paper that USCIS is currently able to handle applications for about six million applicants a year. Under some legalization proposals, the agency may receive that number of applications in a few weeks.

There are no serious legalization proposals currently pending before Congress. It is heartwarming to me though that USCIS thinks there might be and is actively planning on how to be prepared for it.