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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawThe CR-1 Visa: Removal or Lift of Conditions

The CR-1 Visa: Removal or Lift of Conditions

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggest, we are going to be discussing CR-1 visas; that is Conditional Resident Visas and so-called Removal or Lift of Conditionality.

Now what is a CR-1 visa? We have discussed it somewhat at length in other videos on this channel. I urge you to check out the search function on here and you can find some other information about that.

Briefly, basically it is a spouse visa for those who have been married less than 2 years at the time of entry to the United States in immigrant visa status. Conditional Residence was created, it was sort of a way to dissuade or to discourage so called marriages of convenience whereby a couple would get married in order to simply obtain immigration benefits. In the past, that couple, once they got to the United States, or once the foreign spouse got to the United States, they could simply get divorced and that foreign spouse would maintain their lawful permanent residence status based on their prior marriage. As it sits now, that is not necessarily the case. There are certain limited circumstances where a divorce can occur prior to the 2 year mark and the lawful permanent residence can remain in effect but those situations are rather few and far between. Certain instances under the “Violence against Women Act”, VAWA ,which we discuss at length in another video on this channel may, you could see a factual set of circumstances where an individual could go ahead and lift their conditions without remaining married. But specific to the vast majority of cases, that is not going to be the case and in fact the individual in question needs to remain married in order to lift the conditions of their immigration status basically. And what status is that? It is “Conditional Residence” status. So they are a resident but it is conditioned upon the continuing existence of the underlying reason for the original issuance of the visa so in the case of a spousal visa, as long as the marriage is intact and genuinely intact, then the couple goes ahead and deals with the lift of conditions and goes on their way. When does this occur? 90 days prior to the 2-year anniversary of the foreign spouse entering the United States and being given their, what is called the I-551 stamp, there is another video on this channel, discussing the I-511 in more detail; I urge those interested in that topic to go and check that out.  But as soon as they are stamped in, 90 days prior to the 2 year anniversary of that date, they can go ahead and file for the lift of conditions and sometime around the 2 year mark maybe a little bit after that, depending on the USCIS’s backlog in the United States, an adjudication will take place as to whether or not the same conditions are present that were present at the time the visa was issued and so long as the finding is positive,  a lift of conditions will occur or removal of conditions will  occur so that individual will no longer be considered a conditional permanent resident; they will be considered unconditional lawful resident. Their green cards will thereafter be issued for 10 years periods and their lawful permanent residence will be permanent barring some future act that should cause or could result in Lawful Permanent residence being stricken, essentially.  Again a fairly rare set of circumstances occur where that is in fact the case but it can happen.

So again just to sort of recap. CR-1 Visas: Those who enter the United States in a CR-1 Visa, they need to do what is called a lift of conditions. They can start the process 90 days prior to the 2 year anniversary of their arrival in the United States and upon completion of the process they will become what are called “Unconditional” lawful permanent residents and their Green Cards will be issued for 10 years at a time and their lawful permanent residence will be granted in perpetuity into the foreseeable future I guess is the right way of phrasing that.