A couple of legal questions came up during today's very nice presentation on citizenship and the N-400.
When in doubt, ask a lawyer or legal service . . .
Questions about marriage:
-1/ may go to the statutory period of being a (lawful) permanent resident: the default is five years, with an exception of 3 years if you are still in marital union with U.S. citizen. So if you got divorced, it's the 5 years.
-2/may also go to whether you lost your permanent residence. (LPR= lawful permanent resident- green card holder).
The terminology is confusing.
Permanent residence is only sort of permanent. You can lose it if you're gone for too long. (It's not a time share in a condo . . .) or take action that contradict permanent residence in the U. S. You can also lose it if you have conditional permanent residence, and you fail to file to remove the conditions (or your application is denied.) If you got your green card through marriage to an American and the marriage is less than 2 years old, you get conditional permanent residence, which is indicated by a 2-year card. You are then required to jointly file a petition to remove the conditions by showing that you are still together. There are exceptions to that jointness of the filing, including for divorce (if the marriage was bona fide in the beginning) and battered spouse, but it still needs to be filed by the permanent resident.
If the conditions are successfully removed (or there never were conditions), then you get a 10-year card. You have to renew the card (proof of status) to update it, but the permanent residence status continues indefinitely unless you lose it. (Gone too long, get removed (deported) for "conviction" of certain crimes , or become a U.S. citizen.)
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That's all just for context. If there are questions about crimes or answers to the "good moral character questions, refer for legal help. Immigration law is not only complex, but also "organic" (changing and piecemeal). It even has its own definitions . . .
Whether you file on paper or online, it's good to know exactly what you filed.
Comments
During the webinar, a person asked about a case based on 2 year residency. I jumped to the conclusion that the person was talking about Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but on further consideration, I wonder if the person was talking about a conditional permanent resident--a person who entered the United States as the spouse of a US citizen when their marriage is less than two years old. The card gives the holder the same rights as other green card holders, including the ability to live and work in the US, travel, and apply for citizenship after three years. The conditions must be removed before they petition for citizenship.
This terminology may be clear to the applicant, but they not be able to explain their status to a teacher or adult education program manager. I think this calls for a "Immigration 101 for Citizenship Teacher" hosted by a USCIS officer or immigration legal service representative webinar to clarify some of these issues. Would this webinar be something of interest to the LINCS community?
Special thanks to Mary Joan Reutter for addressing these issues.
Actually, I do think that it would be helpful for citizenship teachers and some other adult ed teachers to have some contextual background for how immigration and citizenship and other law impacts their learners and their programs. I would be willing to work with others (either from the USCIS or legal service agencies) on presenting this information. But, rather than a webinar, given how time-starved many teachers are, I'd recommend a short self-study course. The goal would not be for teachers to advise learners " whether to apply for citizenship or other immigration benefits etc. The goal, rather, would be to understand the context. For example, I know that there have been some posts about applying for parole, and then the government is saying "You can still apply, but we can't grant any at the moment. " Huh??? Well, this came from executive, not legislative, action and so is more easily challenged in court, which it has been. . .
I actually have been working towards building such a course, so I'd be happy to collaborate. (I made an educator-oriented PowerPoint for the Open Door Collective and 2 CLEs for Ohio and Kentucky lawyers on immigration and citizenship law and principles of English language acquisition, ESL and adult education. I need to update them and flesh them out, but I'd be happy to collaborate.