I-751 Questions

[John24689 0]

My fiancée and step-daughter arrived together in the US. My step-daughter will be 22 when the I-751 is filed. They both received their green cards at the same time. I am trying to fill out the I-751 form and have some questions.

1. In Part 5, I-751, it asks that all your children be listed. My wife has a 27 year old son who lives in Russia. I presume we will list both of her children. On the line with her son’s information, we would only list his name, Date of Birth, and “NO” in the Living with you column.

For her daughter, we would list her name, DOB, A#, Address. What is the immigration status? Is it Legal Resident? And then list “YES” for living with you.

2. In the instructions, it states that any resident children should be included in Part 5 or they may file separately. When does a resident child have to file separately? My step-daughter was 20 when she got her green card.

3. Are there any references that can be cited? I can not find any information on the form, instructions, or in my searches.

Thanks for any help. Have a great day.

John

[Marilyn. 340]

all I found was this... but it doesn't say why a child would file separately...

If you are a child filing separately from your parents to remove the conditions on your permanent residence, you must submit the following:

* USCIS Form I-751 (Petition to Remove the Conditions on Residence)

* Copy of USCIS Form I-551 (Permanent Resident Card)

* A written explanation of why you are filing separately from your parents, and any supporting documentation.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1____

[Marilyn. 340]

I just saw this....

Each conditional resident child listed under Part 5 of this form who is a dependent seeking to remove their conditional status, is required to submit an additional biometric services fee of $80, regardless of age.

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

my thinking is that a child would file separately if for some reason they got their green card after or before the parent did.. so their green card would have a different expiry date on it...

[pj1959us 0]

I have seen at least one other VJ member (peejay) that included his stepdaughter over 21 years old with his wife's I-751 and they were successful. I think he was with the TSC.

However, we submitted Chris' I-751 with David's (AOS was granted same day) but theirs were rejected and sent back to us. The reason stated is that since Chris is over 21 that he must file separately and pay appropriate fee/biometrics. We filed with the NSC but the actual rejection was sent from CSC and signed by the director.

I saw the "regardless of age" statement and it is referring to the biometrics fee. When I looked up the "rule" about lifting conditions it does specifically mention "dependent" children; as such, since Chris was over 21 I wasn't going to fight the rejection at that point so that we could submit the I-751s in a timely manner.

I know this doesn't help you, since as you can tell one was able to lift conditions and another wasn't, but I wanted to tell you what has happened to us thus far. If you do file them together and have the conditions listed successfully, please update us. Once the I-751s are processed I am going to write a letter of complaint on "inconsistencies" and have it reviewed.

Best of luck!

PJ

Edited September 6, 2007 by pj1959us

[John24689 0]

PJ, I called USCIS and the girl told me that if the spouse and child received their 2 year green card on the same day or within 90 days of each other, the child could be listed on the I-751 with the spouse. She told me to search on their web site for a reference. She would not give me one. I did search and found this:

Sec. 216.4 Joint petition to remove conditional basis of lawful permanent resident status for alien spouse.

Dependent children of a conditional permanent resident who acquired conditional permanent resident status concurrently with the parent may be included in the joint petition filed by the parent and the parent's petitioning spouse. A child shall be deemed to have acquired conditional residence status concurrently with the parent if the child's residence was acquired on the same date or within 90 days thereafter. Children who cannot be included in a joint petition filed by the parent and parent's petitioning spouse due to the child's not having acquired conditional resident status concurrently with the parent, the death of the parent, or other reasons may file a separate Petition to Remove the Conditions on Residence (Form I-751). (Amended 5/23/94; 59 FR 26587 )

I don't know if this will help you in your situation or not. I hate that your son's got denied because he was over 21. I know that is wrong. I am going to submit the above reference in my cover letter and put my step-daughter in item 5 on the I-751 when we file.

Good luck and I will keep you informed.

John

[pj1959us 0]

Yes, that's the one I had found too...it does say "dependent" though (which one over 21 wouldn't be) and that's the main reason I decided not to get into a contest about it at the moment (and due to the fact that their cards expired on August 22nd!)

To be honest, I was a bit shocked when we got the Rejection notice and at first thought it was because of the police certificate info (from David's shaded past ) that we didn't have a copy of to include with the petition. Then, thinking about it wondered if it were due to Chris' age (even though I know of at least one person on VJ to successfully do the same thing) so didn't *really* think that would be the cause.

Consistency is not their forte, to be sure. Please do keep me informed and hope it works out better for you than it did for me! With the time limit looming and everything else I've had going on this summer I just didn't have it in me at the time to try to resubmit as it was with an argument (especially with the "dependent" language), with the fees changing at that time and fighting about that too!

Unfortunately, any advice from the USCIS hotline should be taken cum grano salis but will keep my fingers crossed for you! Besides, it will be one more argument to include in my complaint letter!

PJ