3 Mistakes Made When Filing Form I-751

Immigration Attorney

Conditional Permanent Residents who obtained their status through marriage usually file Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence. Along with Form I-751, people usually include evidence of their marriage being in good faith, if they received their conditional green card through marriage.

Using an older edition of Form I-751

USCIS forms have an additional date and expiry date. It is very important that whenever one sends a form to USCIS they are using the current version of the form. USCIS forms usually list the expiration date of the form on the top right corner of the first page of the form. The edition date is usually listed on the bottom left corner of each page. For the most current version of the form, go to the USCIS website. The USCIS website will say which edition of the form is the current edition, and the USCIS website will also let you download the latest version of the form.

Waiting too long to prepare the filing

Page 1 of the instructions for the 12/02/19 edition of Form I-751 states, “If you are filing this petition jointly with your spouse, you must file it during the 90-day period immediately before your conditional residence expires.” This means that you usually cannot file Form I-751 until 90 before the expiration of your green card if you are filing with your spouse. However, because the process of collecting evidence may take a significant amount of time for some people, a person intending to file Form I-751 could benefit from making a plan for what evidence is needed and how to collect that evidence slightly earlier than the 90-day filing window starts. You may want to talk to an immigration attorney a full month before the filing window starts so that you will have plenty of time to make a plan for what evidence you would like to submit, and then go about collecting that collecting that evidence so that you can have all of the necessary evidence as soon as the 90-day filing window starts. 

Not submitting the appropriate fee

USCIS will not accept your Form I-751 unless you provide the appropriate application fee. As of the date this article was written, for most Applicants the filing fee for Form I-751 is 595.00 dollars, plus an 85.00 biometrics fee. Fees to USCIS are payable through money order, check, or credit card. Checks and money orders must be written to “U.S. Department of Homeland Security” written in full without any abbreviations. One can pay through credit card by filling out form G -1450, Authorization for credit card transactions. Filing fees can sometimes change, so it is important to keep up to date with the filing fee.