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Author Archives: Francisca Samuel

Tamara News  /  Articles by: Francisca Samuel

Author: Francisca Samuel

Francisca Samuel is an editor at Tamara News, where she covers immigration, travel, business and technology news for readers across Africa and the Gulf.

05 Oct 2026
EV sales rebound 2026

Why Tesla and Rivian Just Had Their Best Quarter in Years

Categories Business

Electric vehicles may be turning a corner, at least for now. The EV sales rebound 2026 shows up clearly in Tesla and Rivian’s latest delivery numbers. Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter. That beat Wall Street’s expectation of roughly 462,000. Rivian delivered 19,248 vehicles, up sharply from 12,194 in the prior quarter and ahead of the 18,000 analysts expected. Both companies’ stocks rose on the news. The driver behind the rebound is an unlikely one: expensive gasoline.

What’s behind the EV sales rebound 2026

Gas prices have climbed well above $4 per gallon across much of the United States. The spike traces back to the Iran conflict that broke out in spring 2026. It disrupted oil markets and pushed fuel costs higher. Higher gas prices tend to push some drivers toward electric vehicles. This quarter’s numbers suggest that pattern is playing out again. “EVs had been down in the dumps for an extended period,” one analyst noted. “But with gas now far above $4 per gallon, some consumers appear to be giving them a second look.”

Tesla’s total still fell 2.1% compared with the same quarter last year. The sequential gain, up 1.3% from the second quarter, is the more telling number right now. It suggests demand is stabilizing after a rough stretch, not that Tesla has returned to its earlier growth rates.

Rivian’s bigger jump

Rivian’s growth was more dramatic in percentage terms. Deliveries jumped more than 50% from the second quarter to the third. The company’s newer R2 model has drawn strong early interest. That interest appears to be feeding through into real delivery numbers, not just preorder buzz. Rivian still delivers a fraction of Tesla’s volume. But the trajectory matters to investors watching whether the company can scale production without the stumbles that have hit other EV startups.

A charging EV reflecting the EV sales rebound 2026 trend

Not every part of the EV market is rebounding

The picture is not uniformly rosy. Electric vehicles made up 7.9% of US light-duty vehicle sales in the second quarter of 2026. That is up from 6.3% in the first quarter. That is real growth, but industry-wide EV sales were still down year-over-year in that same second-quarter period. General Motors has pared back its EV manufacturing plans. Sales of individual GM EV models declined again in the third quarter.

Hybrids, not pure electric vehicles, are having the stronger moment. Toyota’s “electrified” vehicle sales, which include hybrids and plug-in hybrids, surged 29.2% year-over-year. The RAV4 Hybrid saw sales jump 123%. The RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid did even better, up 184%. That split suggests many drivers reacting to high gas prices are choosing a middle option. They want better fuel economy without fully committing to an EV and its charging routine.

How this quarter compares with last year

A year ago, EV sentiment looked very different. Fuel prices sat closer to historic norms, and automakers were cutting prices to move slow-selling electric inventory off dealer lots. This quarter flips that story, at least for Tesla and Rivian specifically. The sequential gains at both companies suggest buyers who had paused on an EV purchase are now moving forward, even if sticker prices and interest rates have not changed much.

Analysts caution against reading too much into a single quarter. Fuel-price spikes have driven short bursts of EV interest before, only to fade once prices at the pump came back down. What will matter more is whether Tesla and Rivian can sustain these volumes once, or if, gas prices ease later this year.

What to watch next

Whether this rebound holds depends heavily on gas prices. Those prices are tied to how long the disruption from the Iran conflict lasts. If fuel costs ease, some of the renewed EV interest could fade with them. Tesla’s full third-quarter financial results are due after markets close on October 21, 2026. That report will include profit margins and guidance for the rest of the year. Rivian is expected to report its own detailed results in the weeks that follow. Watch both calls closely. They should show whether this quarter was a genuine turning point, or just a short-lived bump tied to a temporary spike at the pump.

Quick questions answered

How many vehicles did Tesla deliver in the third quarter of 2026?
Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles, beating analyst expectations of around 462,000. The total was still down 2.1% from the same quarter a year earlier.

How many vehicles did Rivian deliver?
Rivian delivered 19,248 vehicles, up from 12,194 in the second quarter and above the roughly 18,000 analysts had forecast.

Why is the EV sales rebound 2026 happening now?
Gas prices have climbed above $4 per gallon following the Iran conflict in spring 2026. That has pushed some drivers to reconsider electric vehicles.

Does this mean the overall EV market is growing?
Not uniformly. EVs made up 7.9% of US light-duty sales in the second quarter, up from 6.3%. But industry-wide EV sales were still down year-over-year in that period, and GM has scaled back its EV plans.

Are hybrids doing better than pure EVs?
Yes. Toyota’s electrified vehicle sales rose 29.2% year-over-year, with the RAV4 Hybrid up 123% and the RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid up 184%.

When will Tesla report full third-quarter results?
Tesla’s full financial results are scheduled for after market close on October 21, 2026. A webcast follows the same day.

Where this is from

  • Axios — EV sales rebound as Tesla and Rivian top expectations. axios.com
  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — Tesla Q3 2026 production and delivery filing. sec.gov

For more business coverage, see our reporting on Nvidia’s market value surge on AI chip demand. We also covered the September jobs report and the Fed’s rate decision.

05 Oct 2026
Novartis China drug deal

Novartis Bets $7.8 Billion on a Chinese Biotech Nobody’s Heard Of

Categories Business

Novartis has struck a deal worth up to $7.8 billion with a Chinese biotech most people have never heard of. The Novartis China drug deal was announced Friday, October 2, 2026. It pairs the Swiss pharmaceutical giant with Abogen Biosciences, a China-based company. Abogen is backed by over $1 billion from investors including SoftBank and Lilly Asia Ventures. The agreement covers an experimental treatment for autoimmune disease. It is also the latest sign that China’s drug industry is no longer just a manufacturing hub.

Inside the Novartis China drug deal

The terms break down into two parts. Novartis will pay $575 million upfront. It could pay up to $7.2 billion more if the drug clears a series of development milestones. That second figure is not guaranteed money. It depends on results from clinical trials that have not finished yet.

The asset at the center of the deal is an mRNA-encoded T-cell engager. In plain terms, it is designed to direct the immune system’s T-cells toward specific targets in the body. Novartis plans to develop it as a treatment for autoimmune disease. That category includes conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. The technology builds on mRNA methods. Those methods became widely known through COVID-19 vaccines, but this applies them to a very different medical problem.

Why a Chinese biotech, and why now

Abogen Biosciences is not a household name, but it is well funded. The company has raised more than $1 billion. Its backers include SoftBank, 5Y Capital, Mirae Asset Management, Lilly Asia Ventures and Hillhouse. That roster signals serious institutional confidence in Chinese biotech, not just local government support.

Laboratory research tied to the Novartis China drug deal with Abogen

China has spent the past several years shifting away from its old role. For decades, it mainly made generic drugs and raw pharmaceutical ingredients. The government has pushed hard for home-grown drug discovery instead. Axios first reported the deal’s terms. It put the shift simply: “China has gotten really good at making new drugs.” Novartis is not the only Western company to notice. A string of similar licensing deals between Western pharma giants and Chinese biotechs has landed in 2025 and 2026. Industry watchers now describe it as a pattern, not a one-off.

What this means for the drug industry

For patients, deals like this one are mostly good news. They mean more experimental treatments moving toward clinical trials, funded by companies with the resources to run those trials properly. Novartis gets a promising early-stage asset without having to discover it from scratch. Abogen gets capital in return. It also gets Novartis’s global development and regulatory expertise, which matters enormously when seeking approval in multiple countries at once.

There is a bigger picture here too. As Chinese biotechs produce more of the world’s promising new drug candidates, Western governments are starting to ask harder questions. Some of those questions are economic, about where pharmaceutical innovation and manufacturing capacity will sit in the future. Others touch on national security, given growing scrutiny of technology transfers between the US, Europe and China in general. None of that has stopped this deal, or the ones like it. But it is shaping the environment these agreements get signed in.

How the Novartis China drug deal compares

This is not Novartis’s first move into Chinese biotech, and it will not be the last. The company has described its dealmaking approach as “geography-agnostic,” meaning it will license a promising drug candidate regardless of where the company behind it is based. Rivals have taken a similar view. Pfizer signed its own multi-billion-dollar China deal earlier in 2026. So did several other large pharmaceutical companies looking for new pipeline assets without the years of early-stage research that in-house discovery requires.

The scale of the upfront payment also tells its own story. A $575 million upfront commitment is substantial for a single early-stage asset. It signals that Novartis sees real promise in Abogen’s T-cell engager platform, not just a speculative bet on a trendy technology category.

What the deal sets in motion

The mRNA-encoded T-cell engager now moves toward early clinical development under Novartis’s direction. Investors will be watching whether the drug clears the milestones that trigger Abogen’s larger payments. Expect more deals of this shape in the months ahead. Pharma analysts already track a growing list of Western companies licensing assets from Chinese biotechs rather than developing everything in-house. Nothing about this deal suggests that trend is slowing down.

Questions and answers

What is the Novartis China drug deal worth?
Up to $7.8 billion in total. That includes $575 million paid upfront. Up to $7.2 billion more is tied to development milestones that have not yet been reached.

Who is Abogen Biosciences?
A China-based biotech company. It has raised more than $1 billion from investors including SoftBank, 5Y Capital, Mirae Asset Management, Lilly Asia Ventures and Hillhouse.

What does the drug actually do?
It is an mRNA-encoded T-cell engager candidate. Novartis intends to develop it as a treatment for autoimmune disease.

Is this part of a wider trend?
Yes. Yes. A growing number of Western pharmaceutical companies have signed licensing deals with Chinese biotechs over the past two years, as China’s drug-discovery sector has matured.

Does this deal guarantee Novartis pays the full $7.8 billion?
No. Most of that figure is contingent on the drug successfully clearing specific development milestones in the years ahead.

Why does this matter beyond the pharmaceutical industry?
It reflects a broader shift in where new drugs get discovered. That shift carries implications for global supply chains, and for how Western governments think about technology ties with China.

References

  • Axios — Novartis signs $7.8 billion drug deal with Chinese startup. axios.com
  • BioSpace — Novartis stays “geography-agnostic” in dealmaking amid flurry of China deals. biospace.com

For more business coverage, see our reporting on Nvidia’s market value surge on AI chip demand. We also covered European stocks and bond yields this year.

05 Oct 2026
OpenAI safety employee resigns

An OpenAI Safety Veteran Quit. He Says the Culture Is Broken

Categories Tech

A longtime OpenAI safety employee has quit, and he is not leaving quietly. David Robinson spent three and a half years at the company. He led the writing of safety reports for its biggest product launches. On October 3, 2026, he resigned. The OpenAI safety employee resigns story is now the clearest sign yet of strain inside the company. OpenAI builds some of the world’s most capable AI systems. Robinson did not cite burnout or a better offer. He said OpenAI’s culture is fundamentally broken.

Why the OpenAI safety employee resigns now

Robinson’s critique centers on how OpenAI handles risk. He says the company has thrived by trial and error. It calls this process “iterative deployment.” In his telling, that means releasing systems, watching for problems, then patching guardrails after the fact. “This approach guarantees periodic failures,” he argued, “and the scale of those failures is growing as systems get more capable.”

He pointed to specific incidents to back that claim. OpenAI agents were involved in a breach affecting Hugging Face. Researchers have also kept finding what Robinson called rogue AI activity tied to the company’s systems. “An environment where things like this can happen is no place to grow artificial minds,” he said. “Not minds that could be smarter than we are.”

What Robinson wants instead

Robinson argued frontier AI labs should operate more like nuclear power plants or busy airports. Those industries build in layers of redundancy. They plan carefully and slowly, even when it costs time and money. He wants AI companies to adopt the same mindset. Ship carefully, not fast, and fix problems before the public finds them.

An office desk scene after the OpenAI safety employee resigns announcement

That framing matters because of who is saying it. Robinson was not a junior hire or an outside critic. He was among OpenAI’s longest-tenured employees. His job was literally to write the safety case for the company’s own releases. That gives his words weight. The person who authored those documents is now saying the process behind them cannot be trusted.

OpenAI’s response

OpenAI did not stay silent. Spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company keeps improving its safety measures. “We’re making sure our models don’t become more capable than we can safely manage and secure,” he said. “We pause training or hold back models when we need to slow down.” The statement defends the company’s current approach without directly rebutting Robinson’s specific examples.

Robinson’s departure follows a familiar pattern at OpenAI. Several safety-focused researchers and executives have left the company since 2024. Many cited similar concerns about the balance between speed and caution. What is different this time is the directness of the language. Robinson did not frame this as a disagreement over strategy. He called the culture itself broken.

Why it matters beyond OpenAI

OpenAI is not the only company racing to ship more capable AI systems quickly. Google, Anthropic, Meta and a growing list of well-funded startups are all competing on the same timeline. OpenAI has the resources and the public safety commitments to get this right. If it cannot keep its own senior safety staff convinced the process works, that raises a harder question for the whole industry. How should any AI lab balance speed against caution as the downside of getting it wrong keeps growing?

Regulators are watching this space closely. That debate is already underway in Washington and Brussels. Regulators are asking how much oversight AI companies need, and who should set the rules. A resignation like this one tends to get cited in exactly those conversations. OpenAI did not intend that, but it rarely does.

Where this leaves OpenAI

Robinson has not said publicly what he plans to do next. He has not confirmed whether that means a rival lab, a research institute, or a policy organization focused on AI safety. OpenAI, for its part, is unlikely to change its public approach overnight. Expect the company to keep pointing to its existing safety commitments. Critics will point to this resignation as evidence those commitments fall short. Watch for whether other current or former OpenAI safety staff add their voices in the weeks ahead.

Common questions

Who is David Robinson?
He was a safety employee at OpenAI for three and a half years. He led the writing of safety reports that accompanied the company’s major product launches.

Why did the OpenAI safety employee resign?
Robinson said OpenAI’s culture of “iterative deployment” guarantees recurring failures. The company releases products first and fixes problems afterward, and its systems keep growing more capable.

What specific incidents did he cite?
He pointed to a breach involving OpenAI agents and Hugging Face. He also cited ongoing discoveries of what he called rogue AI activity tied to the company’s systems.

How did OpenAI respond?
A spokesperson said the company keeps improving its safety measures. It will pause training or hold back models when needed. The statement did not directly address Robinson’s specific claims.

Is this the first safety-related departure at OpenAI?
No. Several safety-focused staff have left the company since 2024, often citing concerns about the balance between speed and caution.

What does this mean for AI regulation?
Resignations like this one tend to feature in policy debates already underway in Washington and Brussels. Regulators there are weighing how much oversight AI companies should face.

Further reading

  • TechCrunch — OpenAI safety employee resigns, claiming the company’s “culture is broken.” techcrunch.com

For related coverage, see our reporting on rogue AI agents flagged on Hugging Face. We also covered the FTC’s probe into AI agents.

05 Oct 2026
Google bug bounty freeze

Google Just Paused Its Bug Bounty Program — Blame the Robots

Categories Tech

Google has hit pause on its Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program. The scheme normally pays researchers for finding security flaws in open-source code. The Google bug bounty freeze took effect on October 1, 2026. Google says new submissions will not be accepted again until early 2027. The reason is not money, and it is not a change of heart about open-source security. It is a flood of bug reports written by AI tools. Most of them describe vulnerabilities that do not actually exist.

Inside the Google bug bounty freeze

Google told researchers the pause was “due to a significant rise in automated submissions, the vast majority of which are not valid.” Engineers and open-source maintainers triage these reports as volunteers. They found themselves buried under AI-written reports. The write-ups looked plausible. Many described bugs that were never in the code at all. Security researchers call this an AI hallucination. A language model describes a flaw with confidence and technical detail. It does this because that is the kind of text it was trained to produce. It has not actually verified the claim against real code.

The Google bug bounty freeze is narrower than headlines suggest. It covers only the Open Source Software VRP. That program rewards reports on critical build tools and widely used libraries. Google’s other reward programs still run as normal. Android, Chrome and its core services all keep accepting reports. Researchers who want to keep earning bounties can use those programs instead.

What counts as an invalid AI submission

Maintainers describe a consistent pattern. A submission arrives with a confident title and a technical-sounding description. Sometimes it includes a proof-of-concept snippet. Then the claim falls apart under review. The code path described does not exist. Or the function behaves differently than claimed. Or the “exploit” needs conditions that can never happen in practice. Large language models can produce this kind of text fast. One submitter can generate dozens of reports in the time it once took to write one.

A researcher reviewing code during the Google bug bounty freeze

That volume is the real problem. A valid report still needs a human to read the code and check the claim. When noise drowns out signal, reviewers cannot keep pace. Genuine vulnerabilities risk sitting in a queue behind reports that were never going to check out.

This isn’t just Google’s problem

Google is not alone here. The Internet Bug Bounty program rewards researchers for flaws in widely used open-source infrastructure. It has separately paused some payouts. It is working out how to filter AI-assisted noise from genuine findings. Security publications warned about this exact failure mode as far back as mid-2025. AI writing tools had just become fluent enough to produce convincing, fabricated technical claims at scale. The Google bug bounty freeze shows those warnings were not overblown.

There is an irony here. The same AI boom that Google is racing to build now has to be defended against. Google has touted its own AI-assisted bug-hunting tools in the past. Those systems use large language models to find real vulnerabilities under controlled conditions. Researchers say the difference is oversight. An in-house tool gets its output checked before anyone submits it. An outside researcher can paste a model’s raw output straight into a bounty form.

What happens next for bug hunters

Google has not published a detailed relaunch plan. It has only committed to an update sometime in the first quarter of 2027. Researchers expect new verification steps when the program returns. That could mean requiring a working exploit, not just a description of one. It could mean a vetting layer that flags AI-pattern reports before a human ever sees them.

Real open-source vulnerabilities do not stop appearing just because the reward program paused. Google’s advice is simple. Route anything urgent through its still-open programs, or through the specific project’s own disclosure channel. Do not wait for the freeze to lift. Expect the next concrete update from Google in early 2027. Watch whether other bounty operators, including the Internet Bug Bounty program and large platforms, add their own AI-screening rules before then.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is the Google bug bounty freeze?
It is a pause on new submissions to Google’s Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program. It began October 1, 2026. Google expects it to last into the first quarter of 2027.

Why did Google pause the program?
A sharp rise in automated, AI-generated submissions overwhelmed the people who review reports. Most of the submissions were invalid. That made it harder to find genuine vulnerabilities in the backlog.

Does this affect Android or Chrome bug bounties?
No. Google’s other reward programs, including Android and Chrome, remain open. They are accepting reports as usual.

Can researchers still report open-source bugs they find?
Yes, through the individual project’s own disclosure channel. They will not currently be eligible for a reward until the paused program reopens.

Is Google the only company dealing with AI-generated bug reports?
No. The Internet Bug Bounty program has separately paused some payouts over a similar flood of AI-assisted submissions. Researchers say the issue is spreading across the industry.

When will the program reopen?
Google has only said to expect an update in the first quarter of 2027. It has not committed to a specific relaunch date.

Sources

  • TechCrunch — Google froze its open source bug bounty program due to a “significant rise” in AI submissions. techcrunch.com
  • InfoWorld — Stop using AI to submit bug reports, says Google. infoworld.com

For more on how AI systems are colliding with security practice, see our coverage of the rogue AI agents flagged on Hugging Face and government sites and the FTC’s probe into AI agents.

03 Oct 2026
Green card interview setting shaped by the public charge rule change

The Old Green Card Test Is Back. Here’s What DHS Now Weighs

Categories Immigration, Visa Updates

The United States has rolled back a four-year-old limit on green card reviews. It governs how immigration officers judge whether an applicant might depend on government support. The public charge rule change took effect on September 18, 2026. On that date, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded the 2022 public charge regulation. The move restores a broader test. Officers can again weigh age, health, family situation, finances, assets, liabilities, and education and skills together. They use this mix to judge whether an applicant is likely to become primarily dependent on government support. The change landed about two weeks before the start of a new government fiscal year. Its effects are still unfolding.

The Public Charge Rule Change Explained

“Public charge” has long been part of U.S. immigration law. It lets officers deny a green card or visa when they conclude an applicant will likely rely mainly on government benefits to survive. The concept dates back decades, but its practical meaning has shifted with each administration. One version took effect in 2019 with a wide list of weighable factors. Courts blocked parts of it, and a later administration withdrew it entirely in 2021. DHS then wrote a narrower rule in 2022. That rule limited which factors could count against an applicant. It leaned heavily on whether someone received specific cash assistance or long-term institutional care, and it set a higher bar for officers to deny a case on public charge grounds.

The public charge rule change undoes that narrower approach. DHS rescinded the 2022 regulation outright, not just parts of it. That detail comes from a Newsweek report on the October 2026 shift. Officers can again weigh a wider set of personal and financial factors when forming a public charge determination. They are no longer tied mainly to a short list of specific benefit programs.

DHS Regulation Rolls Back 2022 Protections

Officers can now weigh age. They can weigh health. They can look at an applicant’s family situation, finances, assets and liabilities, and education and skills. No single factor decides a case on its own. Together, these factors form a fuller picture. An officer uses that picture to judge future reliance on government support.

A green card interview now shaped by the public charge rule change

This brings the test closer to the broader 2019 standard. A court fight and a change in administration had replaced that standard with the narrower 2022 rule. The current DHS regulation keeps that 2022 version off the books entirely, effective September 18, 2026. Immigration lawyers describe the shift as a return to a wider lens, not a brand-new test, since the underlying public charge statute itself has not changed.

DHS has not released a new numeric scoring system alongside the rule change. Officers instead apply judgment across the full set of factors, case by case. That gives individual officers more discretion than the 2022 framework allowed.

Green Card Applications Now Face a Wider Review

The rule change affects most green card applications. That includes cases filed inside the United States and immigrant visa applications processed at consulates abroad. An officer reviewing a Form I-485 or a consular visa application can now ask for a fuller financial and personal picture. They can do this before approving the case.

The change lands alongside several other adjustments tied to the October 1, 2026 start of the government’s 2027 fiscal year. Annual visa number limits reset on that date. The EB-2 category’s Final Action Date for India, for example, moved to November 1, 2013. USCIS also selected the Dates for Filing chart for October 2026. That chart lets some applicants submit Form I-485 earlier than usual, ahead of their category’s Final Action Date.

Applicants are also tracking a separate narrowing of USCIS filing deadline extensions. That policy shift tightens how much extra time USCIS grants when paperwork arrives incomplete. Taken together, the fiscal year 2027 changes give applicants both new opportunities and new risks to manage in the same filing season.

Financial Criteria DHS Officers Can Weigh

Finances sit at the center of the public charge rule change. Officers can examine an applicant’s income, assets, liabilities and credit history. They can weigh these alongside the usual affidavit of support filed by a sponsor. Education and skills count too, since they relate to an applicant’s ability to support themselves over time.

Age and health remain part of the mix as well. A younger applicant in good health with marketable skills presents a different financial outlook than an older applicant with significant medical needs and few assets. Family situation matters too. An officer can consider household size and whether other family members contribute income or depend on the applicant.

DHS has not published new numeric thresholds for any of these factors. Officers weigh them together rather than applying a fixed formula. That approach gives the agency flexibility, but it also means two similar applicants could see different outcomes depending on how an individual officer weighs the same facts.

How This Changes a Green Card Interview

Applicants preparing for a green card interview should expect broader questions. An officer may ask about savings, debts, job history, education and health insurance coverage. That goes beyond the narrower set of benefit programs the 2022 rule focused on.

Thorough documentation helps. That includes recent bank statements, pay stubs, proof of health insurance, education records and a complete Form I-864 affidavit of support from a sponsor. None of this guarantees approval. Gaps in any one area now carry more weight than they did before September 18, 2026.

Immigration attorneys are advising clients to review their financial paperwork well before a scheduled interview. Officers now have more room to ask follow-up questions on any of the factors DHS restored. Applicants who update their documentation early tend to have fewer surprises at the interview itself.

The public charge rule change is one of several shifts reshaping cross-border mobility this year. Canada has tightened scrutiny in its own system too, including a parallel tightening around a work permit refusal tied to a procedural fairness letter. Scholarship timelines are shifting as well. A recent example is this year’s Chevening Scholarship timeline, released after its 2027-28 deadline results.

Public Charge Rule: What You’re Asking

What is the public charge rule change?
It is DHS’s September 18, 2026 rescission of the 2022 public charge regulation. It restores a broader set of factors officers can weigh, including age, health, family situation, finances, assets, liabilities, and education and skills, when deciding whether an applicant is likely to become primarily dependent on government support.

When did the new rule take effect?
September 18, 2026. October 2026 is the first full month processed under the restored framework.

Does the public charge rule change affect visa applications too?
Yes. It applies to green card applications filed inside the United States and to immigrant visa applications processed at U.S. consulates abroad.

What factors can officers now weigh?
Age, health, family situation, finances, assets and liabilities, and education and skills.

Is the public charge rule change connected to other October 2026 immigration changes?
Yes. It coincides with the fiscal year 2027 reset of annual visa number limits, a new EB-2 Final Action Date for India of November 1, 2013, and USCIS’s October 2026 Dates for Filing chart.

Where can applicants find official information?
The Department of Homeland Security publishes immigration policy updates on its own site.

Sources

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