The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reported recently that Senators Menendez (D-NJ), Gillibrand (D-NY) and Leahy (D-VT) introduced the Orphans, Widows and Widowers Protection Act (S. 1247) to amend the immigration laws to provide benefits for applicants who have submitted family-based petitions based on marriage to U.S. citizen spouses who subsequently pass away during the immigration process.
The bill if passed into law, would amend the immigration laws and provide the following benefits:
- Allowing orphans, parents and spouses of United States citizens by allowing them to continue their applications through the family-based immigration system in cases where the U.S. citizen died if the individual self-petitions within two years;
- Allowing the spouse and minor children of family-sponsored immigrants and derivative beneficiaries of employment-based immigrant visas to benefit from a filed immigrant visa petition after the death of his or her relative or, adjusts status on the basis of a petition filed before the death of the sponsoring relative if the application is filed within two years;
- Allowing the spouse and minor children of refugees and asylees to immigrate to the U.S. despite the death of the principal applicant and allow them to adjust their status to permanent residence;
- Implementing a procedure to reopen previously denied cases and allow individuals to be paroled into the U.S. in cases where the sponsoring relative died after submitting an immigration application; and
- Allowing the naturalization of widows and widowers of U.S. citizens by allowing the surviving spouse to continue his or her application for naturalization as long as the deceased spouse was a U.S. citizen during the three years prior to filing.
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