[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1870 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1870

 To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for relief to 
                    surviving spouses and children.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 2, 2009

 Mr. McGovern (for himself, Mr. Markey of Massachusetts, Mr. Bilbray, 
   Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Sires, Mr. Nadler of New York, Mr. McMahon, Mr. 
Abercrombie, Mr. Gene Green of Texas, Mr. Wu, Ms. Bordallo, Mr. Daniel 
E. Lungren of California, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Gonzalez, and 
Mr. Lewis of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for relief to 
                    surviving spouses and children.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. RELIEF FOR SURVIVING SPOUSES.

    (a) In General.--The second sentence of section 201(b)(2)(A)(i) of 
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(2)(A)(i)) is 
amended by inserting ``(or, if married for less than 2 years at the 
time of the citizen's death, an alien who proves by a preponderance of 
the evidence that the marriage was entered into in good faith and not 
solely for the purpose of obtaining an immigration benefit)'' after 
``for at least 2 years at the time of the citizen's death''.
    (b) Applicability.--
            (1) In general.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
        apply to all applications and petitions relating to immediate 
        relative status under section 201(b)(2)(A)(i) of the 
        Immigration and Nationality Act pending on or after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act.
            (2) Transition cases.--
                    (A) In general.--In the case of an alien described 
                in subparagraph (B) who seeks immediate relative status 
                pursuant to the amendment made by subsection (a), the 
                alien shall have until the date that is 2 years after 
                the date of the enactment of this Act to file a 
                petition under section 204(a)(1)(A)(ii) of the 
                Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
                1154(a)(1)(A)(ii)), notwithstanding any other provision 
                of law.
                    (B) Aliens described.--An alien is described in 
                this subparagraph if--
                            (i) the alien's United States citizen 
                        spouse died before the date of the enactment of 
                        this Act;
                            (ii) the alien and the citizen spouse were 
                        married for less than 2 years at the time of 
                        the citizen spouse's death; and
                            (iii) the alien has not remarried.
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