In an effort to expedite the immigration backlog and improve efficiency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced new guidelines for waiving interviews for conditional permanent residents (CPR). Effective April 7, immigration officers can waive removal of conditions interviews for some family-based immigrants with conditional green cards. It will be up to the discretion of the USCIS to waive interviews of the family members of U.S. citizens and green card holders who have conditional permanent resident status and submitted Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residency.
Immigration officers will use a risk-based approach to determine if there is sufficient evidence that the marriage is bona fide, and that there is no fraud or misrepresentation or criminal activity to waive the in-person interview.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires conditional residents to attend an interview with USCIS to decide the couple’s removal of conditions petition. INA also gives USCIS the authority to waive I-751 interviews. In 2018, the Trump administration prohibited immigration officers from waiving interviews, which caused the interview backlog to triple from 2018- to 2021. The new guidelines restore the immigration officer’s discretion to pre-2018 policies.
Married couples who have been married for less than two years before the approval of a green card application based on marriage to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident are granted conditional permanent resident (CPR) status. To remove the conditions of residence, the CPR status individual and their spouse must file Form I-751 together during the 90 days before your second anniversary as a conditional resident. A CPR green card expires two years after it is issued. Failure to apply for removal of conditions before the green card expires will result in loss of conditional resident status, and the applicant may be removed from the country.
Godoy Law Office assists in the removal of conditions of residence process. If you are completing the petition or your petition has been denied, a CPR lawyer can help. Call today at 630-912-0322 or use our online contact form to schedule a consultation.
Immigration Attorney Mario Godoy has years of experience guiding clients with immigration issues through the immigration process along with guiding clients through the criminal case. Godoy focuses on family-based immigration law, business immigration law, removal defense, and criminal defense representation of immigrants. A criminal charge or conviction can be devastating to your immigration case. With over a decade of immigration law experience and memories of family members who were deported due to bad legal advice, Godoy is committed to helping other immigrant families receive the legal justice they deserve. As a legal entrepreneur who practices immigration law, criminal law, estate and probate law, and running two successful law firms, Mario Godoy understands the importance of keeping families together and making a home and future in America.
