A conditional permanent resident is someone whose green card is valid for only two years and who must petition U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to remove those conditions before the card expires. Miss that filing, and you lose lawful status and become deportable. The status exists for two groups: people who received a green card through a marriage less than two years old, and foreign nationals who immigrated through the EB-5 investor program.
Who Gets a Two-Year Green Card
New Marriages
If you marry a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident and your marriage is less than two years old on the day USCIS approves your green card, the card comes with conditions attached.1USCIS. Removing Conditions on Permanent Residence Based on Marriage The two-year period functions as a built-in check against marriage fraud. If your marriage was already two or more years old when the green card was approved, you skip conditional status entirely and receive a standard 10-year card from the start.
EB-5 Investors
Foreign nationals who immigrate through the EB-5 program also start as conditional residents. The investment must create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs for U.S. workers.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program For petitions filed on or after March 15, 2022, the minimum investment is $1,050,000, or $800,000 if the enterprise is in a targeted employment area or qualifies as an infrastructure project.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. About the EB-5 Visa Classification
Your Rights While Conditional
Day to day, you have nearly all the same rights as a standard green card holder. You can live and work anywhere in the United States, travel internationally, get a Social Security number and driver’s license, start a business, and enroll in U.S. schools. The card itself looks like any other green card except for the two-year expiration date printed on it.
The card cannot be renewed the way a 10-year card is. You have to affirmatively petition to remove the conditions, and the deadline is unforgiving. Long trips abroad also carry risk. An absence of more than a year can lead USCIS to conclude you abandoned your permanent residence, and absences of six months or more can disrupt the continuous residence needed for eventual citizenship.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. International Travel as a Permanent Resident
Removing Conditions After Marriage
Marriage-based conditional residents file Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence. It is normally filed jointly with the spouse who petitioned for your green card, and it must be submitted during the 90-day window immediately before your conditional card expires.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence Not after it expires. Not six months early. Filing outside that window without a valid waiver request can result in denial.
The filing fee is $750 by paper or $700 online. Petitioners who request a waiver based on battery or extreme cruelty pay no fee.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055, Fee Schedule
The core of the petition is evidence that your marriage is real. USCIS wants a paper trail of a shared life: joint bank statements, shared leases or mortgages, utility bills in both names, insurance policies listing both spouses, birth certificates of children born to the marriage, and affidavits from people who know you as a couple. The more varied and consistent the record, the stronger your case. Thin files are where trouble starts.
After filing, USCIS issues a receipt notice that extends your lawful status while the case is pending. You will be scheduled for biometrics, and USCIS may call you in for an interview to verify the marriage.
Filing Alone: Waivers of the Joint Filing Requirement
Joint filing assumes your marriage is intact and your spouse will cooperate. When that isn’t the case, you can request a waiver and file Form I-751 on your own. USCIS recognizes three grounds:7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Waiver of Joint Filing Requirement
- Divorce or annulment, where you entered the marriage in good faith but it ended before you could file jointly. You’ll need to show the marriage was genuine and provide the divorce decree or annulment order.
- Battery or extreme cruelty by your petitioning spouse against you or your child during the marriage. This covers physical violence, threats, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse, and evidence can include police reports, protective orders, medical records, and counselor statements.
- Extreme hardship if you were removed from the United States, beyond what any person would experience from deportation.
Waiver-based petitions can be filed at any time before your conditional status expires, not only during the 90-day window.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence That flexibility matters for people going through divorce or leaving an abusive spouse who cannot wait for the standard window to open.
Removing Conditions as an EB-5 Investor
EB-5 investors file Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status, during the 90-day period immediately before the card expires.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status The filing fee is $3,750.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055, Fee Schedule
The petition has to show you actually made and sustained the required capital investment and that the investment created, or is in the process of creating, at least 10 full-time jobs.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status Supporting documentation typically includes audited financial statements, the enterprise’s tax returns, and payroll records showing the jobs created. Investors who pulled their capital out or whose enterprise never generated the required employment will not meet this standard.
Children on the Petition
When a parent receives a conditional green card through marriage, dependent children who received their own conditional status at the same time, or within 90 days, can be included on the parent’s Form I-751. The parent lists each child’s name and alien registration number in Part 5 of the form.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence
Children who received conditional status more than 90 days apart from the parent, or whose conditional-resident parent has died, must file their own separate Form I-751. Families sometimes miss this when a child’s case ran on a different timeline than the parent’s.
What Happens If You Don’t File or Are Denied
If you fail to file Form I-751 or I-829, or if you and your spouse don’t appear for a required USCIS interview without good cause, the law directs the Department of Homeland Security to terminate your permanent resident status as of your green card’s second anniversary.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1186a – Conditional Permanent Resident Status for Certain Alien Spouses and Sons and Daughters You become deportable.
A denial has the same effect. When USCIS denies a Form I-751, it terminates conditional status on the date of the decision and is required by statute to issue a Notice to Appear, which starts removal proceedings in immigration court.12U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Decision and Post-Adjudication Withdrawing a joint petition ends the same way: USCIS terminates status and issues the Notice to Appear. If your status is terminated and you end up in immigration court, the burden falls on you to show you actually met the filing and interview requirements. Filing on time with thorough documentation is far easier than fighting that battle later.
After Approval: The 10-Year Card and Citizenship
When USCIS approves your petition to remove conditions, you become a full lawful permanent resident and receive a standard 10-year green card. Your time as a conditional resident counts toward the continuous residence and physical presence requirements for naturalization.13U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Conditional Permanent Resident Spouses and Naturalization
Most permanent residents can apply for U.S. citizenship after five years of continuous residence. If you’re still married to and living with the U.S. citizen who sponsored you, that drops to three years.14U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Continuous Residence and Physical Presence Requirements for Naturalization Because the conditional period is two years and removal-of-conditions processing often runs well past two years, many marriage-based green card holders are already close to naturalization eligibility by the time their 10-year card arrives.