Opinion ID: 3037057
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Immediate Relative Definition

Text: [6] Under § 1151, a United States citizen can petition the immigration authorities to adjust the status of an alien who is an immediate relative to that of a lawful permanent resident. “Immediate relative” is a defined term, as set forth in § 1151(b)(2)(A)(i): For purposes of this subsection, the term “immediate relatives” means the children, spouses, and parents of a citizen of the United States, except that, in the case of parents, such citizens shall be at least 21 years of age. In the case of an alien who was the spouse of a citizen of the United States for at least 2 years at the time of the citizen’s death and was not legally separated from the citizen at the time of the citizen’s death, the alien (and each child of the alien) shall be considered, for purposes of this subsection, to remain an immediate relative after the date of the citizen’s death but only if the spouse files a petition under section 204(a)(1)(A)(ii) of this title within 2 FREEMAN v. GONZALES 4521 years after such date and only until the date the spouse remarries. The government, relying primarily on the statute’s second sentence (“In the case of an alien who was the spouse of a citizen . . . .”), reads § 1151(b)(2)(A)(i) as “requir[ing] that in order to be an ‘immediate relative’ under immigration law the alien ‘spouse’ (wife) must have been married to the United States citizen ‘spouse’ (husband) ‘for at least 2 years at the time of the citizen’s death.’ ” Under the government’s proffered reading, if the citizen spouse dies before the second anniversary of the qualifying marriage, the alien spouse is no longer considered a “spouse” and is no longer entitled to an adjustment of status. Mrs. Freeman disputes the government’s reading. Relying on the first sentence of the statute (“For purposes of this section, the term ‘immediate relative’ means the children, spouses, and parents . . . .”), she argues that she qualified for adjustment of status as an immediate relative — i.e., a spouse — because of her marriage to a U.S. citizen at the time her husband (and she) filed the forms required to initiate the adjustment of status process. She further argues that the statute does not impose a two-year marriage requirement to be considered an immediate-relative spouse, nor does it void that spousal status upon her husband’s death. To the extent the second sentence the government invokes is relevant, it simply grants an alien spouse whose deceased citizen spouse had not filed an I-130 the right to self-petition so long as the parties were married for two years prior to the citizen’s death.