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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawK-1 Fiancée Visas, Adjustment of Status, and Removal of Conditions

K-1 Fiancée Visas, Adjustment of Status, and Removal of Conditions

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggest, we are going to be discussing fiancée visas. We are going to be discussing specifically the issue of what's called “Lift of Conditions”.

Now as a preface to this whole discussion let me first of all point out, list of conditions is fundamentally different than adjustment of status. For information on adjustment of status, there is another video specific to that issue, also on this channel. What we are talking about here is "lift of conditions". So let me go through sort of a timeline and then sort of explain specifically the lift.

In most cases involving a K-1 fiancée visa, the foreign fiancée of an American citizen, and it has to be an American citizen, the foreign fiancée of an American citizen obtains a K-1 fiancée visa from abroad, they enter the United States. They are admitted into the United States with 90 days of lawful status for the sole purpose of marrying the American fiancée and filing for adjustment of status. Once the couple is married they can then turn around and file for adjustment of status. What does adjustment of status mean? Well in short it basically means, adjusting from a K-1 over into lawful permanent residence. Again there is a specific video on this channel regarding that, I suggest you use the search function to find that video and it will go into much greater detail about that overarching issue. But with respect to adjustment of status, once the adjustment of status process is complete and presumably once the adjustment is approved, the K-1 fiancée will be issued an I-551 stamp and they will also be issued an actual green card, the actual resident card. That initial resident card will be issued for 2 years because that K-1 fiancée will be considered in conditional lawful permanent resident status; only bureaucracy can come up with the term like that! Conditional Lawful Permanent Resident means, well in lawful permanent residence they are lawful permanent resident. They must lift their conditions to become an unconditional permanent resident. What does that mean? What it means that the same conditions that existed when they were granted their conditional lawful permanent residence must still be in place at the time that they request that their conditions be removed or lifted. So what does this mean? 90 days prior to the 2-year anniversary of the issuance of the   

I-551 stamp, the former K-1 fiancée visa holder can file to have their conditionality removed  or lifted.  So what that means is they go from getting a 2-year green card and they go from being considered a conditional lawful permanent resident to being considered an unconditional lawful permanent resident and they will be issued a 10-year resident card and their residence itself from a legal standpoint will be considered perpetual so long as they don't engage in some activity criminal or otherwise which could place them into deportation proceedings or make them inadmissible to the United States etc.

So the thing to take away from this is, “yes adjustment of status is one part of the process but even after that individual is granted lawful permanent residence, they still need to deal with lift of conditions in order to maintain the lawful permanent resident into the foreseeable future”.