leeen21

Woooo! Ended up sending off our I-751 packet way later than I would have liked, due to many different factors. My husband's green card expires on September 23, 2025. Dropped off 138-page packet at UPS on Friday, Sept 5 Confirmed delivery to Tempe AZ lockbox on Monday, Sept 8 DHS check deposited today (Thurs, Sept 11) As I posted about farther upthread, my main source of concern for our packet was my 15yo stepdaughter's pending charge for possession of drug paraphernalia. The court hearing was pushed back from mid-August until tomorrow actually (Sept 12). She has a criminal defense lawyer, and the most likely outcome will be a deferred dismissal program, in which her case will be dismissed after a certain amount of probation - no guilty plea, no conviction. The immigration lawyer I consulted with on a few occasions advised to answer Question 20 honestly - my husband (the joint petitioner) has no criminal history, but his minor daughter was cited for this charge and is pending court. Because we didn't want to risk waiting until after the court date to send the package (and be even further delayed), she recommended not attaching any paperwork, since we don't have the final disposition yet. Whenever we do have that, we will send it in. I had also previously posted about my oldest stepdaughter who never established residency in the U.S. She was listed on the application, only as one of his children, but we indicated that she doesn't live with us and is not included in the application. She'll lose her status when it expires in November. In the meantime, we wait for the extension letters... We live on the border and cross pretty frequently, so those letters will get a lot of use. Everyone has Global Entry, so it's not every crossing that they are asked for their green cards, but they will continue to always travel with them + extension letters.

Glad to see this started here! My husband's conditional GC expires September 23 and my two stepdaughters' on November 23, so we'll be filing one application for all three soon. I have a large amount of evidence already gathered and am still gathering more. I hate that we're having to interact yet again with USCIS, especially in the current political climate. Question in the I-751 that I'm stuck on: Part 1, Question 20 - Arrested, detained, charged, indicted, fined, or imprisoned My 15yo stepdaughter was found in possession of a vape at her high school in February. I was called to come pick her up; I was told by the assistant principal that if her dad or I could not pick her up, she would be taken to our local PD station. When I arrived, there was the PD officer there (works at the school), as well as the assistant principal. The officer said her charge was possession of paraphernalia and that we would receive information about a court date in the mail. Since then, we haven't received anything from the court; we've been told they are very backed up. I've called the PD station; they don't have any files on her since they sent them all to the court. I've called the court; they don't show anything in their system yet. The only paperwork I have about the incident is paperwork from her school for her disciplinary action (in-school suspension and alternative campus). An immigration lawyer I spoke with said that he would not consider that being arrested, detained, or charged, but I'm not sure. And how do you answer that question if the primary applicant is my husband, and his children are being included? His answer to Question 20 is definitive no, but it's hers that's up in the air. If anyone has any thoughts or experience, please let me know!! I'll definitely be checking back in here as we send in our package.

Agreed - I made it clear to her when she first gained residency that SHE needed to take responsibility of educating herself on what she needed to do to maintain her residency. I would be there to help, but she is an adult and needed to do her own research. That has not happened in the year and a half since, and frankly, after repeating to her so many times that she needed to DO something in order to keep her green card privileges, I'm done trying. I completely agree with everyone that it's her decision, and she should be the one putting the effort into it. I know that there's no way she will be able to afford a $750 fee (lives in an impoverished area, but also - despite much encouragement to do so - does not have a job), but I also don't believe it then falls on us to pay it. My husband and I have decided not to include her in his application to removal of conditions (her bio information yes, but he will indicate "no" on the ROC part). Thank you all so much for your input! I'm sure I'll be back with many questions as we put together our package.

Thank you all for your input and helping me realize that I actually *don’t* need to stress about this. I’m definitely way more stressed about this than she is or will ever be. So I can just… not file. Phew! My husband does have to include ALL children on the I-751, right? So, SD #3 will still be listed as his child, but he’ll check NO to the question of if this application includes her. Do I have that right?

In all honesty, I don't really want to pay an extra $750 fee to file her own application for it to be denied. And if it gets approved, I am 90% sure it would still be years before she would actually move to the US like we had hoped. It already pains me how much time and effort (and money!) I spent to get her the conditional residency, only for her to essentially use it as a visa. This is the side my husband takes - he thinks we should just not file for her at all.

So, it might look like.... Packet #1: Husband + SD #1 + SD #2 I-751 with husband and all children listed In Part 5, where SD #3 is listed, we would answer both "living with you" and "applying with you" as NO All evidence (birth certificate of our child together, joint deed of house we own, shared bills, tax return transcripts, etc. Packet #2: SD #3 I-751 with SD #3 only In Part 3, she would check 1b "my parent's spouse because I am unable to be included in a joint petition" Evidence? Similar to the evidence I provided for Packet #1? I don't have any joint evidence with SD #3 except for some photos together.

I totally agree, which is why I like the idea of having her own application. I don't want her residency being questioned and possibly ROC denial to affect the three others who DO live in the US.

I'll be curious if anyone chimes in about experience with that. Everything in the instructions indicates it has to be the same application. I wonder if both applications would go in the same package together with the same evidence?

Nope. She lives 15 minutes from the border in Mexico, and we live 15 minutes from the border in the US. She's only ever visited us and hasn't ever left the border region. I looked into a re-entry permit, but I didn't think it applied since she had indicated she was going to visit more frequently (and establish some sort of residency here), but that didn't pan out.

100% agree. Just needed clarification on the address. Can I do that? That honestly would be my ideal solution. For a separate application for SD #3, would she need to include an explanation of why she has not immigrated, or just submit the application with her address in Mexico and see what happens? To be honest, I'm more than a little burned out of dealing with her case. I filed for her because she was eligible when we got married, hoping it would open doors for her in the US. She hasn't made any effort to walk through any of those doors, despite my and my husband's encouragement to. She has children and has created her own life in Mexico, and I don't see her changing that any time soon. My husband and I have since had our own baby, and I really want to focus all my energy on the five of us (me, husband, 2 SDs, and baby), and not whether or not she's going to immigrate or not. All that to say, a separate I-751 application would be ideal (minus the extra cost... but worth it if it's more security for us).

We will be applying to remove conditions on my husband's and stepdaughters' 2-year green cards at the end of June. There are four applicants, all of whom received their conditional residency within 90 days of each other: Husband Stepdaughter (lives with us in USA) Stepdaughter (lives with us in USA) Stepdaughter (does not live with us, still lives in home country) My third stepdaughter is still living in Mexico, despite having received conditional residency in November 2023. At that time, she had a 1 year old son, and she has since had another baby. She has visited us on the US side of the border a few times, most recently in early November. As we are preparing for removal of conditions, I am questioning how to address her case on the I-751. We are filing ONE I-751 application since, per the instructions, all four immigrated within 90 days of each other (first husband, then stepdaughters). 1. Her permanent address with UCIS is our home address in the US - should I use that address for Part 5 (physical address) or her address in her home country? 2. If the Mexico address is flagged, would it affect ONLY her residency, or would it affect the other three applicants? I would really like to ensure that our application will NOT be affected by her decision to stay in Mexico, even if that means she is not able to remove conditions. I just don't know if they separate out cases like that that are on the same application. Any input would be very appreciated!

My stepdaughter (15) had a huge error in judgement and was caught with a vape at school last week. She was not arrested, but she was charged by a local PD officer at the school with possession of paraphernalia (class c misdemeanor), and even though the vape was not empty, they did not charge her with what they could have (felony possession of a controlled substance), so in that, she got extremely lucky. We will eventually get the court summons (they said March or April), and we will be seeking either immediate or deferred dismissal, after which we'll fight for expunction. We will be submitting our paperwork for removal of conditions for my husband's, hers, and two other stepdaughters' green cards in June. Because they are his dependent children who all entered the U.S. within 90 days of their dad, my understanding is that we will only need to submit one application and list the three children on there with their A numbers. Question 20 in Part 1 of I-751 seems to only reference the applicant. So, my questions: Because she is a minor, do we need to include this information on the application? If so, where? (possibly under "Additional Information?") If there is not an appropriate place to include it on the application, should we still include the documents in the package? What are the chances of this affecting her permanent resident status? Could they deny the I-751 only for her based on this? (particularly thinking about the current administration) This is a huge life lesson in actions/consequences for her, and I am not trying to skirt around anything for her. I just want to be sure that it would be required to disclose a minor's criminal history, and if so, where it makes sense to include.

That's what I thought, and thanks for confirming! The language "dependent children" always trips me up because it means different things in different contexts (under 18 vs. not, living under your roof vs. not, etc.). In this context, I believe it to mean children who obtained resident status under the parent, whether they are a minor or not.

This is still a ways off for us, but as with everything USCIS-related, we want to be as prepared as possible. My husband entered the U.S. on 9/23/2023, and my stepdaughters entered on 11/23/2023. Per the filing date calculator, we can file I-751 jointly starting on 6/25/2025. My questions/clarifications: Even though the 90-day window won't be open yet for my stepdaughters, they can be included on their dad's/my husband's I-751, correct? (pay 1 filing fee + 4 biometric fees) At the time of filing in June 2025, their ages will be 20, 18, and 15. They are still considered "dependent children" as USCIS refers to in the instructions, correct? They received their green cards as a result of their dad's marriage to me (USC). I'm confused by the new filing fees with the biometrics included for situations like this. Would we pay $750 for my husband (751 w/ biometrics included), plus $30 additional biometrics for each stepdaughter? ($840 total) Appreciate your help. Wouldn't have gotten this far in the process without VJ's help!

This was my experience too. I was able to take care of guardianship paperwork and "pre-enrollment" before my husband and stepdaughters arrived. They crossed on Thanksgiving Day, and the following Monday, I took them to their respective schools to register. It turned out they needed a few vaccines and a TB test before they could finish registering, but they were able to complete registration and start classes by that Thursday.