Widow Penalty: The End of Insult to Injury

Congress has just voted to put an end to the “widow penalty”, that provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that rendered surviving spouses and their children deportable following the death of the U.S. citizen spouse.  President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.  This new legislation allows surviving spouses who were married for less than two years at the time of the U.S. citizen spouse’s death to self-petition for permanent residency within two years of the enactment of this new law.  (Surviving spouses who were married for more than two years at the time of death of the U.S. citizen spouse already had the ability to self-petition).  The new law does not require that an immigrant visa petition be on file, and it applies both to surviving spouses who live in the U.S., and to those who live abroad.  Additionally, in cases there the surviving spouse was already a beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition filed on their behalf prior to the death of their U.S. citizen spouse, it is expected that such immigrant visa petition will automatically convert into a self-petition situation.  For more information, see http://www.ssad.org.  It’s nice to see a positive development from Congress in the immigration arena .  Now, how about that comprehensive immigration reform?

Tags: comprehensive immigration reform, green card, immigrant visa, permanent residency, self-petition, surviving spouse, widow penalty
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