spouce passed away after receving GC, am I eligible to apply for citizenship?

[Techie_ssp]

I am coming back after long time to this forum..

here is the question:

We have received PR (me, my spouse and minor child) in January 2007. The PR was on based on EB3 category and my spouse was the primary applicant and me and my child were the beneficiary. However, in October 2007 my spouse passed away fighting against cancer, it was sudden.

My questions is would I be able to apply for citizenship for me and my child when I finish my 5 years in united states? or we are no longer eligible? I am pretty much sure that we can but can someone please confirm? Thanks a lot..

 

[jayoa]

Well, you already have yopur GC in hand so there is nothing stopping you from applying for citizenship If you did not yet get a GC would have been a more technical situation because there was something called the "Widow Penalty", where the government was back and forth on the fact that if a USC spouse passes away within 2 years while the partner is awaiting a GC then there is no need to issue the partner a GC because they are no longer together anyway. But I think what prevailed was that such a situation is not under anyone's control for a spouse to pass away which is not the same as a divorce and also not to levy more pain on the partner who already has a spouse that passed away which can also further affect any child derived from the union. I personally think it is a good decision. It would have been quite tricky if you had not received your GC before your spouse passed away because I am not sure this new law applies to your case since your spouse was not a USC, but in this case you are fine.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/21/nation/na-widows21

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/us...nnel=3d7fa6c515083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

 

[IPL-fan]

since you got your GC through your wife, not because she was a USC, but as a beneficiary under her GC application, you don't have any dependency to apply for your citizenship. You can apply on your merit, in this case after completing 4 yrs 9 months being a LPR.

If your wife was a USC and you got your GC through her, then could apply for citizenship after completing 3 years.

BTW, I feel very sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Jackolantern]

My questions is would I be able to apply for citizenship for me and my child when I finish my 5 years in united states?

Your eligibility under the 5 year rule is independent of your spouse's immigration status*, or life or death.

But you wouldn't directly apply for your child. If your child is under 18 and living with you in the US as an LPR when you naturalize, your child would automatically become a US citizen. After that, you just have to apply for a passport or N-600 in order to have solid proof of the child's citizenship.

If your child is 18 or older when you naturalize, to obtain citizenship he/she would have to apply for it on his/her own merit.


*however, if there was an issue with your spouse's GC process that caused them to revoke it, yours would also be revoked. Of course, USCIS isn't going to bother to expend energy to revoke a deceased person's green card, unless you are somebody they really want to get rid of.

 

[Techie_ssp]

Thanks a lot everybody, thought i'd double check on this forum with you guys..

I just have to wait for almost about a year from now before I can apply. Good luck everyone..