widow

[spiderbonge 0]

i was given a scenario and was wondering what would happen... the fiance visa goes well and the lady is able to go to the US and marry her fiance... so they got married ... and sometime later the husband dies of natural causes.... would the lady be deported back to her country??

[MaryandMian 1]

Assuming they got approved and arrived on K1 , K3 or CR1 visas they would need to lift conditons after some time. If at the time they go to lift conditons it states on the instructions for the I-751 If you are a widow, widower, or divorced you must still submit the form along with supporting evidence and the death certificate or divorce certificate along with a letter stating your circumstances. It also says a hardship letter stating why your removal from the USA would cause you hardship. So I am assuming as long as they have the proper information they can adjust without the spouse.

[spiderbonge 0]

Assuming they got approved and arrived on K1 , K3 or CR1 visas they would need to lift conditons after some time. If at the time they go to lift conditons it states on the instructions for the I-751 If you are a widow, widower, or divorced you must still submit the form along with supporting evidence and the death certificate or divorce certificate along with a letter stating your circumstances. It also says a hardship letter stating why your removal from the USA would cause you hardship. So I am assuming as long as they have the proper information they can adjust without the spouse.

what do you mean by lift conditions??

[MaryandMian 1]

Once you come on K1 you AOS and get a 2 year green card. Come on K3 and CR1 you have to file and lift conditions 90 days before your 2 years in the USA. You will have to file I-751 petition and pay fees and have bio appointments again.

[TimsDaisy 0]

there's a whole foum on the effect of major family changes. check it out, there are examples of that unfortunate scenario there.

[YuAndDan 153]

NO if just need to lift conditions, the conditional green card holder can lift the conditions on their own, by requesting a waiver of the joint filing requirement.

Filing after Death of U.S. Citizen Spouse

If the U.S. citizen spouse dies the conditional permanent resident must file for a waiver of the joint I-751 petition. The conditional permanent resident must again be able to show that s/he entered into the marriage in good faith in order to obtain an approval of the waiver and be granted regular lawful permanent resident status. In order to qualify, it is also necessary to document the death of the U.S. citizen spouse and file within certain timeframes.

http://www.murthy.com/news/n_remcon.html

If adjusting status as a widow, then file I-485 along with I-864W. A widow of a US Citizen is exempt from the affidavit of support requirement.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864w.pdf

A widow of a US citizen residing over seas can even petition to immigrate by using I-360

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

More reading:

http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/visa/iv/spousedec.html

[Yodrak 7]

MaryandMian,

Bad assumption. The I-485 instructions do not say the same thing as the I-751 instructions.

Yodrak

Assuming they got approved and arrived on K1 , K3 or CR1 visas they would need to lift conditons after some time. If at the time they go to lift conditons it states on the instructions for the I-751 If you are a widow, widower, or divorced you must still submit the form along with supporting evidence and the death certificate or divorce certificate along with a letter stating your circumstances. It also says a hardship letter stating why your removal from the USA would cause you hardship. So I am assuming as long as they have the proper information they can adjust without the spouse.

Edited July 12, 2007 by Yodrak

[MaryandMian 1]

OP states they are married so I am assuming they had a 2 year card and they are still fine with the greencard. The next step would be to lift conditons if they had AOS. Sorry my error then.

[pushbrk 12,605]

Right the earlier answers skipped the step of adjusting status. The conditions are placed on the status. You must have conditional permanent resident status (a two-year green card) before you can remove conditions.

So, there are several potential scenarios I can think of. Maybe there are more.

USC dies....

1. After visa issue but before entry

2. After entry on K1 but before marriage

3. After marriage but before adjusting status

4. After adjusting status to conditional resident

5. After removing conditions.

All but #1 #5 have some potential issues to deal with. Unfortunately #1 means the visa terms cannot possibly be complied with. #5 has no issues because they already have unconditional permanent resident status.

NO if just need to lift conditions, the conditional green card holder can lift the conditions on their own, by requesting a waiver of the joint filing requirement.

Filing after Death of U.S. Citizen Spouse

If the U.S. citizen spouse dies the conditional permanent resident must file for a waiver of the joint I-751 petition. The conditional permanent resident must again be able to show that s/he entered into the marriage in good faith in order to obtain an approval of the waiver and be granted regular lawful permanent resident status. In order to qualify, it is also necessary to document the death of the U.S. citizen spouse and file within certain timeframes.

http://www.murthy.com/news/n_remcon.html

If adjusting status as a widow, then file I-485 along with I-864W. A widow of a US Citizen is exempt from the affidavit of support requirement.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864w.pdf

A widow of a US citizen residing over seas can even petition to immigrate by using I-360

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

More reading:

http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/visa/iv/spousedec.html

[spiderbonge 0]

OP states they are married so I am assuming they had a 2 year card and they are still fine with the greencard. The next step would be to lift conditons if they had AOS. Sorry my error then.

thank you very much...

[Yodrak 7]

YuAndDan,

Tricky tricky - leaving out the critical details. You know how many people take the time to read the references.

Certain widows, not all.

Yodrak

.....

If adjusting status as a widow, then file I-485 along with I-864W. A widow of a US Citizen is exempt from the affidavit of support requirement.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864w.pdf

A widow of a US citizen residing over seas can even petition to immigrate by using I-360

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

More reading:

http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/visa/iv/spousedec.html

[Yodrak 7]

spiderbonge,

What is the lady's status when her husband dies? How long have they been married?

In any case, probably not. Unless something else happened to cause ICE to come looking for her.

Yodrak

i was given a scenario and was wondering what would happen... the fiance visa goes well and the lady is able to go to the US and marry her fiance... so they got married ... and sometime later the husband dies of natural causes.... would the lady be deported back to her country??

[YuAndDan 153]

Right the earlier answers skipped the step of adjusting status. The conditions are placed on the status. You must have conditional permanent resident status (a two-year green card) before you can remove conditions.

So, there are several potential scenarios I can think of. Maybe there are more.

USC dies....

1. After visa issue but before entry

2. After entry on K1 but before marriage

3. After marriage but before adjusting status

4. After adjusting status to conditional resident

5. After removing conditions.

All but #1 #5 have some potential issues to deal with. Unfortunately #1 means the visa terms cannot possibly be complied with. #5 has no issues because they already have unconditional permanent resident status.

I see #2 as having problems also for a K-1 Fiancee, they are required to marry the petitioner and since that has not happened yet for #2, they are not a Widow of a US Citizen and cannot adjust status by (I-485 and I-864W), they could marry someone else, and then file I-130 and I-485 concurrently to adjust status with a different us citizen.

[pushbrk 12,605]

Right the earlier answers skipped the step of adjusting status. The conditions are placed on the status. You must have conditional permanent resident status (a two-year green card) before you can remove conditions.

So, there are several potential scenarios I can think of. Maybe there are more.

USC dies....

1. After visa issue but before entry

2. After entry on K1 but before marriage

3. After marriage but before adjusting status

4. After adjusting status to conditional resident

5. After removing conditions.

All but #1 #5 have some potential issues to deal with. Unfortunately #1 means the visa terms cannot possibly be complied with. #5 has no issues because they already have unconditional permanent resident status.

I see #2 as having problems also for a K-1 Fiancee, they are required to marry the petitioner and since that has not happened yet for #2, they are not a Widow of a US Citizen and cannot adjust status by (I-485 and I-864W), they could marry someone else, and then file I-130 and I-485 concurrently to adjust status with a different us citizen.

Um, I think "all but 1 and 5" includes "2".

[L_n_O 3]

Are you planning something?...

I'M KIDDING!