Extremely borderline with the second anniversary of marriage law

[Marie4Ashley 0]

Hi,

The law for marriage-based visas states this: "if you have not celebrated the second anniversary of your marriage at the time you enter the US using this visa, the DHS officer will admit you as a conditional permanent resident. Then, after you have lived in the US as a conditional permanent resident for 21 months, you and your spouse must file a joint petition (form I-751) with DHS to have the conditional basis of your status removed".

First question: I had been told from a good immigration border guard when I entered in the US that the opposite was also true i.e. that if I had celebrated the second anniversary of my marriage at the time I entered the US then the DHS officer will admit me as a PERMANENT RESIDENT instead of a conditional resident and more precisely he told us that since we were extremely "borderline" with this second anniversary of marriage law that "is not a problem to consider me as a permanent resident" and what I mean by borderline is that only about 4 1/2 months after my entry in the US was the second anniversary of my marriage.

I want to confirm this with you because I am actually working on my I-751 and by the way I became a widow only about 1 month after my second anniversary of my marriage so that brings me to my second question that a friend told me that there is a law about a widow of a US citizen but she was not able to find it and I would like to see it for myself.

Thank you in advance for your kind attention,

Marie4Ashley

[YuAndDan 153]

Yes this is true, and has been discussed many times, if you are entering the USA on a CR-Visa and have been married 2 years before entry, you need to make POE officer aware of this by showing marriage cert and they should code the green-card as IR and issue an un-conditional 10 year card.

NOTE: NEXT TIME PLEASE USE A NORMAL SIZED FONT.

[Kez/JWolf 6]

You say you were 4 1/2 months short of your second wedding anniversary.... if that is the case then you would only get a 2 year conditional Greencard not a 10 year one..... there have been others who were short by just a few weeks and they only got the 2 year conditional card....

Kez

[lucyrich 20]

They've got to draw the line somewhere, and the law has drawn it at two years.

If you entered the US before your second anniversary, even one day before, you get a conditional Green Card. If you enter after your two year anniversary, even one day after, you get an unconditional ten year card. The officer doesn't have leeway to say "oh, that's pretty close, I'll give you an unconditional card". I'm not sure what happens if you enter exactly on the date of your anniversary, but I'm sure there's a policy manual somewhere that gives precise instructions on how to handle the situation.

If they make a clerical mistake and issue you an unconditional Green Card when they should have given you a conditional one, that doesn't relieve you of the requirement to file an I-751 for removal of conditions.

The law about widowhood is summarized on the I-751 instructions. You are still required to file for removal of conditions, and you must submit evidence that shows that the marriage was entered in good faith. You are given more leeway about when to file. You may file at any time after becoming a widow and before removal. Within reason, the sooner the better. It's especially good to file before expiration of the Green Card, since you'll be out of status if you let the Green Card expire before filing the I-751. You do NOT have to wait until 90 days before the expiration date printed on your Green Card, the way most conditional permanent residents do. There's a box on the I-751 which you check to say that you are requesting a waiver of the joint filing requirement due to the death of your spouse.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

[diadromous mermaid 36]

You'll need to send a copy of the death certificate with your evidences.