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MANY believe that marrying a United States citizen is the most straightforward means of obtaining legal permanent residence in the United States. But, marital troubles can cause problems for conditional permanent residents. This article will address some of the problems conditional permanent residents may face when their marriages fall apart.
When an immigrant and citizen marry, the immigrant becomes an "immediate relative" of the citizen and, therefore, exempt from the numerical limitations and quotas that cause long delays for many other types of immigrant visas. Because of this obvious benefit of gaining "immediate relative" status, Congress has enacted laws aimed at ensuring marriages between United States citizens and immigrants are for the purpose of creating a martial relationship and not simply to secure immigration benefits.
One of these laws, the Immigrant Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986, created a two-year conditional permanent resident status for immigrant spouses who were married less than two years before applying for permanent residency. Under this law, if the Government discovers during the two-year conditional period that a marriage between an immigrant and a citizen was entered into fraudulently or only with an intent to secure immigration benefits, it will terminate the immigrant’s permanent resident status. This leaves the immigrant without status and facing deportation proceedings.
However, most couples arrive at the end of the two-year conditional residence period without any Government intervention. Thus, during the ninety days before the expiration of the two-year period, the immigrant must file a petition to remove the conditional status and obtain unconditional permanent residency. What kind of petition is filed depends upon the immigrant’s marital situation at the time of filing. If the immigrant and the citizen remain happily married, they will file a joint application to remove the condition from the immigrant’s status. Subsequently, if the Government is convinced that their marriage is legitimate, it will grant the joint petition and remove the condition from the immigrant’s status. This makes the immigrant a permanent resident.
On the other hand, if a couple is no longer together near the end of the two-year conditional period, the immigrant may still be able to gain permanent resident status without filing a joint petition. In certain cases, the immigrant can obtain a waiver of the joint filing requirement if he or she files a petition to remove the conditional status based on one of the following: (1) the citizen spouse passes away, (2) a good faith marriage that was terminated through divorce or annulment, (3) the immigrant was subjected to battery or extreme cruelty at the hands of his or her spouse, or (4) termination of status and removal from the United States would result in extreme hardship to the immigrant. If one of these waivers is granted, the immigrant will become a lawful permanent resident even without a joint petition.
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