Background

From antifraud safeguard to routine adjudicative pathway.

In 1986, Congress enacted the Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments (IMFA) to address widespread marriage fraud in the immigration system. The amendments strengthened antifraud safeguards by requiring newly married foreign nationals to obtain conditional permanent residence for two years rather than immediate permanent status.

To remove those conditions, Congress required the married couple to jointly file a petition demonstrating that the marriage was entered into in good faith. Form I-751 was designated as the mechanism for this joint filing requirement and was intended to ensure continued participation by both spouses as a core antifraud safeguard.

At the same time, Congress authorized limited waivers of the joint petition requirement, recognizing that exceptional circumstances could arise. Today, I-751 waivers fall into three primary categories:

• Extreme hardship would result if removed;

• Battery or extreme cruelty suffered within a good-faith marriage;

• Termination of a good-faith marriage other than through death, where the conditional resident was not at fault for failing to file jointly.

All three waiver categories are adjudicated through Form I-751 and permit conditional residents to seek removal of conditions without the participation or consent of the U.S. citizen spouse.

Over time, these waivers have evolved from narrow, exceptional relief into a routine adjudicative pathway, fundamentally altering the balance Congress struck between humanitarian flexibility and antifraud enforcement. In practice, unilateral I-751 adjudications now operate as a primary mechanism for removing conditions, significantly diminishing the joint-filing safeguard Congress originally designed.