USCIS Memo : Extension of Green Card with Pending I-751

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently issued a Memorandum clarifying its procedure for providing proof of valid status to individuals who are in the process of seeking to remove the conditions on their permanent residence. Mr. William R. Yates, the Associate Director of Operations for USCIS, issued the Memorandum on December 2, 2003. The persons affected by the Memo are spouses of U.S. citizens who receive conditional permanent residence status and later file the Form I-751 (Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence), seeking to remove the conditional status. The Memo clarifies that such persons will continue to receive stamps in their passports reflecting their permanent residence status until there is a final decision on the I-751.

The problem addressed by the Memo is as follows. As an anti-fraud measure in marriage-based cases, foreign national spouses of U.S. citizens are granted conditional permanent resident status if, at the time of the decision on the case, the marriage is less than two years old. The conditional permanent residence is only valid for two years. (This should not be confused with the ten-year expiration date of most other green cards, where the person's status does not expire in 10 years, only the card itself expires and has to be renewed.) To obtain unconditional permanent residence status that does not expire, the person must file the Form I-751. This allows the USCIS to do an additional review of the case, to determine whether the marriage was bona fide or whether it was entered into just for immigration purposes. The conditional permanent resident may file an I-751 to remove the conditions on permanent residence 90 days before his/her conditional permanent residence will expire. Once the I-751 is filed, the USCIS issues a Form I-797 Notice of Action (Receipt Notice) that extends the person's conditional permanent resident status for one year. This Notice states that work and travel are authorized.

Under the December 2, 2003 Memo, a person who presents an expired I-551 (green card) and the above-described Form I-797 that is expired or will soon expire, may obtain a temporary evidence of I-551 stamp in his/her valid passport. The stamp will have a 12-month expiration date. The stamp is valid for work and travel purposes, just like the green card. If the person does not have a valid passport, an I-94 card with his or her photograph, containing the 12-month I-551 stamp, may be obtained. Prior to this Memo, there was some question of what happened to the conditional permanent resident if there was no decision on the I-751 prior to the expiration of the one-year extension period stated on the Receipt Notice. In our experience at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C., the district offices normally acted in a way was consistent with the Memo's directives.
 
The regulations provide that a person's conditional permanent residence is extended automatically until the I-751 is adjudicated. While faster adjudications of I-751s would be preferable, we appreciate the efforts made by the USCIS to provide those with valid extensions of conditional permanent residence with the proof they need to work and travel.