Last Updated on February 22, 2022

Yay! You got your USA Green Card, finally you can sit back and relax…WRONG.  If you’ve been married for less than 2 years at the time you first applied for a Green Card, you actually are only granted a conditional residency.  This lasts 2 years from the day you first enter the USA.  90 days before the card expires, you have to start the 1-751 process to remove the conditions on the Green Card.  A process that currently has a processing time of over 18 MONTHS.

Disclosure: I am not an immigration lawyer.  This post is based purely on experience and what worked for me and my situation.  Please always read the official instructions carefully!  This post contains affiliate links, I may make a small commission on purchases made after clicking the link, at no extra cost to you.

Updated: Sept 2019

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Applying To Remove Conditions On A Green Card

Ideally I would have liked to be writing this once I know it’s all been accepted and correct…but that would mean waiting almost 2 years!  It’s currently been 16 MONTHS since I first sent off the pack and the conditions still haven’t been removed.

In this post I’ll be covering:

• The I 751 process for the Green Card removal of conditions
• I 751 processing time
• I 751 supporting documents/evidence
• I 797 Notice of Action
• Travelling during the I 751 process
• The biometrics appointment and what happens after it

The US government WILL NOT WARN YOU as to when your Green Card is expiring, it’s on your shoulders to make a note and keep track of the dates!  Working in a school my job was well on top of everything and kept checking in and making sure I knew that my documents were expiring.  I can’t say if other jobs would be this aware of situations.

How to remove conditions on a Green Card

Applying for removal of conditional residence, despite being long, is actually quite simple.  The I-751 is downloaded straight off the USCIS website and is 11 pages long.  Half of the pages I actually left blank.  Well where I could, I typed NA just to show that I had read the question and understood it.  There were spaces for details of up to FIVE children (we have none) and then all the preparer and translator information and details, again I speak English and I filled in the forms myself so this wasn’t needed in my case.

The first pages are about the person with the conditional residence, in this case, me.  All questions you should know about yourself, your name, address, marital status, height, weight, eye colour, hair colour.

The next set of pages are about the spouse that originally sponsored the marriage visa.  In theory, you should still be together so it’s just a case of ticking some boxes, name, address etc.

You and the petitioner then need to sign the form a couple of times each.  If you filled it in online, it automatically put our names in a couple of the places we had to sign which avoids any confusion.

The whole thing took me all of 15 minutes, maybe less, to fill in.  No tricky questions and certainly not like the DS260 which took 2 hours to complete!  It did ask for a USCIS online account number which I’m pretty sure I must have been given one but I could not find it ANYWHERE.  I looked at my old paperwork, emails, I even tried logging back into the USCIS account but it just said that my petition was long gone so there was no information.  It did say (IF ANY), so hopefully it’s not the end of the world.

I 751 Processing Time

Green Card expiry date: 10th August 2018

Earliest date to submit I 751 application: 13th May 2018

Total 1 751 Processing Time 2019: 16 MONTHS

• I 751 application sent: 14th May 2018
• Application received in California: 16th May 2018
• I 797 Notice of Action issued: 11th June 2018 (18 month extension given until 10th February 2020)
• Biometrics appointment issued: 22nd February 2019
• Biometrics appointment received: 1st March 2019
• Biometrics appointment in Des Moines Iowa: 15th March 2019
• Notice for more evidence: June 2019
• Extra evidence sent off: 16th August 2019
• i 797 Notice of Action – Application APPROVED: 9th September 2019
• 10 Year Green Card received: 11th September 2019

I 751 Supporting Documents

The part that takes the longest is gathering together the I 751 supporting documents.  If you have to send the pack off 3 months before the Green Card expires, I’d suggest looking into the whole process AS SOON AS YOU LAND IN THE USA and start collecting evidence NOW.

Over 1 year after I applied for the removal of the conditions, I received a letter saying every piece of evidence that we’d sent had been rejected.  Despite them being all things listed in the instruction book.  What they don’t say is that you need 2 years worth of evidence.  For example, send 2 YEARS WORTH of bank statements, so they can see the ADDRESS is continual.

The letter we received said that they believe that we were in a real marriage BUT it doesn’t prove that we live in the same house.  They need on going evidence of the HOME ADDRESS.  Maybe that’s my fault.  But they certainly don’t make it clear.  The way I understood it, was that they wanted to see joint funds and stuff which obviously proves you are together.  Seems to be that they want 2 years worth of everything on the list.

You’ll need to download the PDF file with the I 751 instructions, this tells you the type of supporting documents that you should include.  This was another frustrating part of the process for me.  My husband already had a house before we were married and before I came to the USA, therefore my name isn’t on the mortgage and it was something that we never bothered adding me on.  However the visa asks for things like joint evidence of mortgage or rent payments, so for all I know I may end up being rejected because of that.  Time will tell.

It’s also a pain, because a lot of companies and places are going ‘paperless’ which yes is great for the environment and all of that but absolutely useless when it comes the USA government that are trying to single handedly destroy the Amazon Rainforest one visa application at a time.  So rather than just keeping hold of statements that come in the post, you physically have to search accounts for them and print them off yourself.

So just like the I 130 application, I created a cover letter stating what I was including as my I 751 supporting documents, it was more like a table of contents, in which I tried to include something for each ‘point’ that they stated in the I 751 instructions.

• Form I-751
• Check for $680 (total sum of the $595 filing fee and 1 x biometrics at $85)
• Copy of the front AND back of two-year conditional Green Card

I wondered if I needed to send 2 separate cheques or combine them both into one.  I ended up sticking both fees on the same cheque because at the end of the day the payment was being made to the same place.  I believe if you have children, you only have to pay the filing fee once, but you’ll have to pay $85 for biometrics for EACH person.

I 751 Evidence of Relationship

(Copied pretty much straight from the cover letter with slight edits to the company names etc)

Items in upper case where things we sent after the request for more evidence

• Documents showing joint debts: Bank loan account statement, City utility bill, HOME EQUITY LOAN DOCUMENT
• Documents showing joint ownership of property or assets: Car insurance certificate, Health insurance ‘family plan’ ID card, Checking account bank statement, 2017 tax return, 2017 tax transcript, STATE DRIVING LICENCES/ID, W2’S COVERING 3 YEARS SHOWING CONTINUAL ADDRESSES OF BOTH PEOPLE, 1 YEARS WORTH OF 3 DIFFERENT JOINT BANK ACCOUNTS STATEMENTS
• Affidavits of support:  Two by British citizens (Kylie’s Mother and Sister) and two by USA citizens (Jesse’s two best friends)
• Photo evidence of our relationship for the past two years and upcoming travel plans
• Correspondence addressed to both of us: hot tub flyer and thank you card from the hot tub rep who we dealt with, envelope addressed to the both of us that contained wedding gift thank you card
• Article about our relationship in the local Telegraph Herald newspaper.

Apart from the mortgage/rent aspect (I did write a footnote saying that he’s owned the house for X amount of years, which was before we even met), the points underlined are ‘categories’ of evidence they specifically ask for.  So I scraped together what I could.  It was my choice to chuck in another tax transcript, they are free and can be ordered online (it was needed for the I 130 so I didn’t think it would hurt sending it again), turns out it was rejected, they’d rather have the WHOLE COMPLETE TAX RETURN for every year you’ve been married.

They state that they require TWO affidavits of support.  I used the same template as the I 130 affidavits.  I read somewhere that the affidavits for this section should also be American citizens/residents rather than family from back home.  I included a further 2 from home because I wanted to tie all the evidence together.  For example, with the photo evidence, I had included the flight itinerary for an upcoming joint trip to Australia to show we were doing ‘big’ things together.  My sister also went on the trip so in her affidavit she stated that she’d be travelling with us so therefore weren’t in a fake marriage.

Another problem I came up against, was finding correspondence addressed to both of us.  In America it seems that people don’t really do personalised Christmas cards/wedding invites/thank you cards etc.  A lot of the time it’s just Happy Christmas from X family/these are the wedding details from X/thank you from X.  So sorry, not sorry, I just sent ripped open envelopes.

Again, trying to tie evidence together, we were fortunate enough to have our story/my travels featured in the local newspaper.  We then happened to buy a hot tub that we purchased under both of our names, so received a promotion flyer addressed to both of us…we also received a thank you card from the lady we dealt with at the hot tub company, who had wrote that she had seen our newspaper article and even sent us the clipping from the paper.  It was my way of trying to show that random people acknowledge us as a couple too!

Where To File I 751

Depending on the state where you live, depends on where you file the I 751 application.  The majority of the ‘east coast’ states send the application to a dropbox location in Vermont.  The Midwest states and the rest of the USA file with the dropbox in California.  The addresses are on the USCIS website.  I sent my application tracked with the regular USPS mail.

I 797 Notice of Action

The I 797 Notice of Action piece of paper then acts like a bigger, uglier version of the Green Card.  It states that the date on the form I 551 (basically the passport stamp for the day you first entered the USA) and the Green Card has been extended for 18 MONTHS.  Apparently it only used to be extended for 12 months but obviously they realise they are being slow pokes so have made it a little longer, how kind.  This then gives you the right to continue working in the US (my work happily accepted a photocopy of the letter) and travelling outside of the US, which leads me on to…

Travelling during I 751 process

If you’re a frequent traveller, you may be aware that a lot of the USA airports have gone digital.  Everyone, whether you are a resident, citizen, on an ESTA, uses a machine at the border.  These machines will reject Green Cards when they reach the point of having 90 DAYS LEFT on them.

It worked when I travelled with 4 months left but not when it reached 2 months.  I was then sent to another line where the security guy said absolutely nothing.  With only 1 month left I went up to someone and just said “my card doesn’t work in the machines anymore, what line should I join” and I was sent down a line that took over an hour and I was the last person left in the immigration hall despite being one of the first off the plane.  It was killing me inside and I nearly missed my connection.  The guard said that my card is running out, so I flashed him the letter and he asked how much of an extension I had been given.  I guess my advice is:

Be prepared and having all the documents ready and make it sound like you know exactly what’s going on and you have everything under control.

It works the same way once the card has completely expired, the only difference being is hand the letter over straight away rather than wait to be asked.  It does feel a little like being punished for the governments slow processing times, but a guess the positive is at least we can still actually leave!!

The last time I flew back to America, I did have trouble at London Gatwick.  I think it was down to experience because they were just like ‘well it’s expired, it means you can’t fly’…despite the letter saying you CAN still travel.

Visa Biometrics Appointment and What Happens After

By the time I received the form with my biometrics appointment on, I only had a 2 week warning.  Thankfully I was given a 9am appointment on a Friday and luckily I have Fridays off work so it worked out perfectly.  I just had to make the 6 hour round trip to Des Moines.

You can reschedule the appointments, but you have to do it by mail.  I’ve also heard that if you HAVE an appointment you could turn up BEFORE the appointment and if they have a spare space, they’ll slot you in.

The letter said that no phones were allowed in the building but we took ours in with no problem.  There was a bag and body scanner as soon as you enter the building.  We had to show the appointment letter to be let though.

The office in Des Moines is right on the lower floor, I went up to the counter, the man stamped my appointment letter and gave me a form to fill in and a number like a meat counter ticket.  The form asked simple things like my name, previous names, my hair colour (blue and pink were options in case you’re wondering), eye colour, height and weight.

A lady called my behind the counter, checked my forms, my Green Card and passport, took my photo, asked me to sign a pad and then fingerprinted each of my fingers…rolling them side to side to get every last millimetre of my fingerprint.

I arrived at 8.40am and by 8.50am…10 minutes before my official appointment slot, I was out and free to go.

How long after Biometrics does it take to get the Green Card?

That was in March, 3 months later I received the letter with a request for more evidence. I was given 3 months to collect more evidence and the letter stated that I should hear something within 60 days of them receiving the documents.  I actually heard within a month of sending off the second pack and my application to remove the Green Card conditions had been approved.  The Notice of Action stated that the card could take up the 60 takes to receive it, in my case it came just 2 DAYS later!

So it took 6 MONTHS after the Biometrics to get my Green Card.

You can find more of my Green Card visa resources here, or feel free to message me and I’ll try and point you in the right direction!  Again I’m not an immigration lawyer, these are just what has worked for my situation and experience!

Are you applying for removal of conditional residence?

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