Last week, the U.S. Senate passed via a voice vote H.R. 398, a bill sponsored by House Immigration Subcommittee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). H.R. 398 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to ease rules under which aliens who marry members of the U.S. military may become legal permanent residents.<\/p>\n
Under current law, when a citizen marries a foreign national, the alien spouse is granted lawful permanent residence (LPR) on a conditional basis for the first two years. (INA \u00a7 216(a)(1)) The government removes this conditional status only after it determines that the marriage is legitimate\u2014a process that includes an interview during the 90-day period leading up to the two-year anniversary of obtaining (conditional) LPR status. (INA \u00a7 216(c)). H.R. 398 suspends the 90-day period in which the citizen and spouse must complete the interview to remove the alien\u2019s conditional status if the citizen (or the alien spouse) is a member of the U.S. military serving abroad. (H.R. 398 at \u00a7 1(a))<\/p>\n
The House passed H.R. 398 nearly unanimously on August 1. (See Voting Record<\/a>) President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, the U.S. Senate passed via a voice vote H.R. 398, a bill sponsored by House Immigration Subcommittee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). H.R. 398 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to ease rules under which aliens who marry members of the U.S. military may become legal permanent residents. Under current law, when<\/p>\n