US Sets Six Conditions for Foreign Spouses' Green Cards

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has outlined six specific conditions that foreign widows and widowers of American citizens must fulfill to be eligible for lawful permanent residency, commonly known as a Green Card. To qualify, applicants must have been legally married to a US citizen at the time of the citizen's death and must demonstrate that the marriage was genuine and entered into in good faith.

Additionally, applicants must not have remarried or been divorced or legally separated from their US citizen spouse at the time of death. They must also have an approved Form I-360, which can either be automatically converted from a previously filed Form I-130 or submitted within two years of the US citizen spouse's death.

A specific deadline of no later than 28 October 2011 applies for cases where the American spouse died before 28 October 2009 and the couple had been married for less than two years. Finally, applicants must be admissible to the United States, which can be influenced by their criminal record, health status, or previous immigration violations.