You may not need to have an interview if you are a conditional resident of the U.S. Residents of New Jersey may want to learn more about President Biden’s administration’s efforts to make the immigration system more efficient. Mandatory interviews were clogging up the system, and the former administration had limited the ability of the officers to use discretion when conducting interviews. In fact, the act of using discretion had a prohibition.
According to recent immigration information, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made a recent change to its policy with an update. Prohibition of discretion is no longer the policy. The “must interview” is gone.
Officers now have more leeway
You will need to submit Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residency. If you have submitted this form, the officers may not have a need to interview you.
Are you a conditional?
Are you in a marriage for less than two years before the approval of a green card application and are listed as “conditional status”? Those with conditional status may want to know that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires conditional residents to attend an interview. It also gives officers the ability to use discretion to waive interviews. However, as mentioned above, that ability to use discretion was also eliminated with the immigration policies of the last administration.
Backlog reached a peak
By the end of September 2021, the I-751 backlog peaked at 323,803. This was not good. As the administration changed, so did the numbers. By December of 2021, the most recent data shows a reduction in the backlog to 252,775.
Recent 2022 changes to immigration policies are helping to ease the backlog in conducting interviews for some of the conditional residents. Officers may, once again, use discretion in deciding if there is a need for an interview. This may help everyone.