Widow of S.I. Ferry Victim Is Not Eligible for Residency, Co

An article from the New York Times

A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that immigration officials properly terminated a Jamaican woman’s application for permanent residency after her husband died in the Staten Island ferry crash in 2003.

The court ruled that because the woman, Osserritta Robinson, was married to her husband for less than two years before his death, her pending residency application could be terminated. The ruling came in a 2-1 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. It overturned a May 2007 ruling by a federal district court judge in New Jersey that the federal government had wrongfully determined that Ms. Robinson, 31, was no longer the spouse of her late husband. The Robinsons were married for eight months.

Here's a link to the entire article;

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/nyregion/03immig.html?_r=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/nyregion/02spouse.html?ref=nyregion

There have been quite a few stories like this over the years unfortunately. US citizen spouse dies, foreign spouse tries to continue with adjustment of status, or remove conditions and application is denied.

I guess its tough to prove a genuine marriage when your spouse is dead

Personally though, if my husband were to die, I'd be back in Canada as quickly as I could pack up my stuff. He's the only reason I'm here.

There was a big stink about this on the news, because there was someone whose husband died from some disease after she applied for AOS, but their kid is a US citizen because he was born there. Her argument was different, which is that if USCIS had acted on her application in a timely manner rather than dragging it out for a year they would have been able to interview her husband before he died.

I think it is pretty outrageous, there was one woman they interviewed who was clearly too upset to deal with the whole situation and to deport her because her husband died has to be the ultimate slap in the face.

If you have children in the US there is a provision in the law that allows you to stay if you can show removing the children from the US would cause "undue hardship". Canadians wouldn't benefit from that one but a lot of people in this situation would.

If AOS applications keep getting dragged out for longer and longer this is going to happen more frequently.

I know of a Scottish woman who had her AOS expedited because shortly after she sent in her application she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. She managed to get her green card, not long before she died.