gavel and passport

Removal of Conditions on Resident Card I-751

This is the application made by a permanent resident married to an American Citizen to extend their 2-year card for 10 years.

Your permanent resident status is conditional if it is based on a marriage that took place less than 2 years before you were granted permanent residence. You are granted conditional resident status the day you are legally admitted to the United States on an immigrant visa with your adjustment of status to permanent resident.

Your status is conditional because you must prove that you did not marry to circumvent the immigration laws of the United States. To remove these conditions you must file Form I-751, Petition to Cancel Conditions of Residence.

Form I-751

Form I-751, Petition for Removal of Permanent Residency Conditions must be filed with the USCIS within 90 days prior to the expiration of their conditional residency and, once approved, immigrants are granted permanent residence "permanent".

Just a few years ago, the process looked like this: 1) I-751 is filed just before conditional residency expires 2) USCIS issues a receipt notice within a week or two (extending your residency for a year ) 3) 4 -6 months later, the applicant receives an approval notice and a permanent green card in the mail, or an interview notice and a decision is received shortly after that.

Today, the I-751 process may look more like this: 1) The I-751 is filed with the USCIS 2) The USCIS does not process the receipt notice for several months if you are lucky 3) After almost two years of waiting, an interview notice appears in the mail, and an I-751 decision soon after that, if you're lucky. Today, USCIS processing times are 15 to 19.5 months, which means that conditional residents are waiting for their Form I-751 and permanent residence almost as long as they have been conditional residents.

Although Congress intended conditional residency to last for a period of 2 years, with its increasing delays, the USCIS, for all intents and purposes, bypassed Congress, extending this period to 4 years or more.