Immigrants seeking permanent green cards through marriage may have one less hurdle (merged)

[theresaL 408]

This would be great for us if the interview is waived. That would mean not loosing a day's salary and no 7 hr round trip drive to the Field Office in KC. But, I think we will probably have to since the AOS interview was waived. I'm also a little nervous about our supporting evidence being sufficient.

[WeGuyGal 1,052]

27 minutes ago, theresaL said:

This would be great for us if the interview is waived. That would mean not loosing a day's salary and no 7 hr round trip drive to the Field Office in KC. But, I think we will probably have to since the AOS interview was waived. I'm also a little nervous about our supporting evidence being sufficient.

You're still about a year and a half away based on current processing times

[theresaL 408]

19 minutes ago, WeGuyGal said:

You're still about a year and a half away based on current processing times

True, but our circumstances will be the same unless something major changes in our life, which I don't forsee in the near future. 

[fascinating123 38]

From the memorandum: "Cases involving fraud or national security concerns must be referred to the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate according to local procedures."

 

Fraud is obvious, but national security is interesting. Do we know if it's specific or general? My wife's country of citizenship is on the travel ban list, does that mean there will be an interview?

[refugee 169]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article223067055.html

 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has revised one of its procedures for immigrants who got their green cards through marriage with U.S. citizens.

Green cards issued for those immigrants are normally conditional, and are only valid for two years. After that, those seeking permanent residence must prove their marriage was not intended to break the immigration laws and therefore is not fraudulent.

 

This process, known as a petition to Remove Conditions on Permanent Residence Based on Marriage, requires Form I-751 and most likely an interview with a USCIS official to demonstrate eligibility to remove such conditions.

The interviews often make couples nervous because they are questioned, frequently separately, about intimate details of their lives in order to test the legitimacy of their marriages.

 

But a new policy memorandum issued by USCIS provides some guidelines that agency officials can use to decide whether to waive that interview requirement.

 

This is a big win for common sense, red-tape cutting and of course many families on this forum. 

[refugee 169]

https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-revises-interview-waiver-guidance-form-i-751

USCIS Revises Interview Waiver Guidance for Form I-751

USCIS has issued a policy memorandum (PDF, 115 KB) (PM) providing guidance to USCIS officers on when to consider waiving the interview requirement for Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence. This PM goes into effect on December 10, 2018 and applies to all Form I-751 petitions received on or after December 10.

Generally, USCIS officers must interview a conditional permanent resident who is the principal petitioner on a Form I-751, unless the interview is waived. This guidance explains that officers may consider waiving an interview if they are satisfied that:

• They can make a decision based on the record because it contains sufficient evidence about the bona fides of the marriage and that the marriage was not entered into in order to evade U.S. immigration laws;
• For Form I-751 cases received on or after December 10, 2018, USCIS has previously interviewed the principal petitioner;
• There is no indication of fraud or misrepresentation in the Form I-751 or the supporting documentation; and
• There are no complex facts or issues that require an interview to resolve.

When determining whether to waive an interview, these considerations apply regardless of whether the Form I-751 is filed as a joint petition or as a waiver of the joint filing requirement.

This PM applies to all USCIS officers adjudicating Form I-751 and fully replaces the June 24, 2005, PM, “Revised Interview Waiver Criteria for Form I-751, Petition to Remove the Conditions on Residence.”

[Hypnos 6,576]

Interesting to note that if a K-1 had their I-485 approved without an interview then this new policy will require them to be interviewed for their I-751, regardless of how strong their case is or the amount of evidence presented. 

[RLA 323]

Yeah, the headline ("... one less hurdle ...") is a little misleading. 

[Georgia16 2,858]

9 minutes ago, Hypnos said:

Interesting to note that if a K-1 had their I-485 approved without an interview then this new policy will require them to be interviewed for their I-751, regardless of how strong their case is or the amount of evidence presented. 

If they have to interview every K-1 who did not have an interview then they will be really busy! 

[Hypnos 6,576]

Agreed. It will slow things down substantially, but that's what the policy says. 

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

And? It's a process, you sign up for it, then people get upset. Don't do it then to begin with. 

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

21 minutes ago, Hypnos said:

Agreed. It will slow things down substantially, but that's what the policy says. 

They have been doing interviews now for almost everybody doing AOS for awhile now and that's the process has slowed down considerable. 

[refugee 169]

36 minutes ago, Hypnos said:

Interesting to note that if a K-1 had their I-485 approved without an interview then this new policy will require them to be interviewed for their I-751, regardless of how strong their case is or the amount of evidence presented. 

I did not pick up on that change

[Georgia16 2,858]

2 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

They have been doing interviews now for almost everybody doing AOS for awhile now and that's the process has slowed down considerable. 

So do you think they will change that or just ride out this year with A LOT of interview for those who got waived AOS interview? I mean it will be a mess with that many interviews but I guess when they reach the point where all the ones with AOS interview get to ROC then they can waive their interview but the time up to that will be crazy!

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

1 minute ago, Georgia16 said:

So do you think they will change that or just ride out this year with A LOT of interview for those who got waived AOS interview? I mean it will be a mess with that many interviews but I guess when they reach the point where all the ones with AOS interview get to ROC then they can waive their interview but the time up to that will be crazy!

I think that's why they rolled this out because they saw that the wait time went up exponentially.