In this article, you will learn a new policy by USCIS on green card renewals and removing conditions on green cards.
USCIS has yet again implemented a new policy regarding green card renewals, and in certain cases, USCIS is going to be extending green cards for up to 48 months. There’s some good news to this and some potentially not so good news that will be covered in this article.
New policy from USCIS on Removing Conditions on Green Card
This policy has to do with basically a way that USCIS is going to be extending green cards for certain applicants that need to apply to remove the condition from their green card.
What does this means? In certain cases, people that get their green card get a conditional green card for a period of two years, and at the end of that conditional period of their green card, they are required to apply to remove the condition from their green card.
In particular, there are two classifications of conditional green card holders.
- For certain people that get their green card through marriage, and
- for investors that get their green card based on making an investment in a U.S business.
For that certain classification of people that have to apply to remove their condition after they got a conditional green card through marriage, application process requires them to file a form I-751. That’s the application type for people that need to apply to remove the condition from their green card based on getting a conditional green card through marriage.
The second classification of people, the investors, when they need to apply to remove the condition from their green card, they have to file a form I-829.
That’s just for you to know the different processes that are involved and the different categories of people that have to apply to remove the condition from their green card.
As mentioned early, in certain cases, people have to apply to remove the condition from their green card by filing either a form I-751, or a form I-829.
Basically, in both of those cases, the green card is valid for two years. And at the end of that two year period, the person has to apply to remove the condition from the green card.
When the applicant is applying to remove the condition from their green card, what happens when that green card expires and their application to remove the condition to get the permanent green card is still processing? How does that applicant demonstrate proof of valid status in the United States? How do they demonstrate proof of that?
In the past, USCIS has issued a receipt notice. So basically, when you file the Form I-751, or you file the Form I-829, when you submit that application, USCIS will give you a receipt that confirms that they have received your application.
In the past, USCIS has included language on that receipt notice that acts to extend the applicant’s green card. So basically, the applicant can provide their expired green card along with the receipt notice, and that receipt notice has special language that extends the green card beyond the expiration date listed on the green card.
The news is that USCIS has now modified this policy. So now the receipt notice for those applicants will act to extend the green card for 48 months, that’s four years.
The good news is that ultimately, this is a benefit to conditional green card holders, because essentially, USCIS is now extending the period of time that the receipt notice will act to extend the conditional green card. It’s now 48 months.
So that receipt notice that USCIS will issue will now act to extend the green card for 48 months from the date of the expiration on the green card. And ultimately, that’s a benefit.
Although this is potentially not such great news, USCIS is doing this because processing times for the form I-751, and the form I-829, they’ve increased over the last year.
Ideally, these processing times would go down, so that there would be no need for this policy to be implemented. But unfortunately, as USCIS clearly mentions in the update, over the last year, these processing times have increased.
And the reason for the need for this protocol and this updated policy is to account for the fact that these processing times have gone up. So from that standpoint, it’s potentially not the best news.
That’s the update. This new policy has been implemented where applicants for Form I-751, and applicants for Form I-829 that are properly filing these forms, when they get the receipt notice from USCIS, it will act to extend the green card for 48 months from the date of the expiration on the green card.
I hope you found this information very valuable and you learned a lot from this article.
Source: Ashoori Law
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