Widower and citizenship

[flyer]

Hi guys,
I have a question and can't find anything related to it online.
My wife passed away 6 months ago and I already got my 10years green card under widower category.
My question is: for how long do I have to hold the green card before being eligible to apply for the citizenship? 3 years, 5 years? I have no clue.

Thank you very much and have a great afternoon.

[flyer]

Hi guys,
I have a question and can't find anything related to it online.
My wife passed away 6 months ago and I already got my 10years green card under widower category.
My question is: for how long do I have to hold the green card before being eligible to apply for the citizenship? 3 years, 5 years? I have no clue.

Thank you very much and have a great afternoon.

[Brit4064]

Good question. I would think it would be 5yrs as the petitioner no longer exists. Did you do an I-360?

[flyer]

No, I didn't do an I-360. We had a pending I-485 when she passed.

[Brit4064]

How was it adjudicated?

[flyer]

What does it mean "adjudicated"?

[Brit4064]

I mean how was your application approved? You say you were approved under the widower category which implies no interview so you must have offered evidence of a good faith marriage?

[flyer]

What happened was, we had the I-485 interview scheduled and my wife passed away before the interview. So I showed up by myself with her death certificate and did the interview. I got approved and my green card has category "IW-6" wich is for widow/er of US Citizen.
Of course I showed a bunch of evidence because we got married for love, and were married for 5 years.
That's my doubt: I know people are supposed to stay married for 3 years in order to apply for the citizenship. But in my case I have no idea of the waiting time.

[Brit4064]

I suspect you are looking at 5yrs (minus 90 days) before you can apply for Naturalization although if LPR is gained via an I-360 under VAWA it's only 3yrs. That's why I was asking if you had filed an I-360.

[Rough Neighbor]

Whereas, I opine that the OP is looking at the 3-year minus 90 days N-400 application timeline. I'm basing it on FY10 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill (P.L.111-83) that President Obama signed into law on 10/28/09, which among other things, invalidated the 'widow(er) penalty.'

There are no hard-cut implementing guidelines yet coming from either the DHS or the DOS in relation to this law. But some practitioners assume that if the USC spouse filed an I-130 petition prior to his/her death, then the I-130 petition will be automatically converted to an I-360 petition. As is the case in the OP's instance.