[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 815 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 815

   To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt surviving 
   spouses of United States citizens from the numerical limitations 
                 described in section 201 of such Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 2, 2009

  Mr. Nelson of Florida (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. 
 Kennedy, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Menendez) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt surviving 
   spouses of United States citizens from the numerical limitations 
                 described in section 201 of such Act.

    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 to such citizen 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 (8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(2)(A)(i)) 
        pending on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
            (2) Transition cases.--
                    (A) In general.--Notwithstanding any other 
                provision of law, an alien described in subparagraph 
                (B) who seeks immediate relative status pursuant to the 
                amendment made by subsection (a) shall 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)) not later 
                than the date that is 2 years after the date of the 
                enactment of this Act.
                    (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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