USCIS announced that it will start to recognize certain informal marriages and divorces for the purposes of determining dependent refugee and/or asylee status when adjudicating Forms I-589 (Asylum/Withholding Application), I-590 (Refugee Classification), and I-730 (Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition).
In a memorandum dated 02/24/2022, the Acting Associate Director of Refugee, Asylum and International Operations (RAIO) explained that USCIS will accept evidence of informal marriages to prove derivative status of these applications. As a result, the current policy has been set aside.
The Reasons for Recognizing Information Marriages
There are many situations in which dependent spouses of refugees and asylees are unable to prove their marital relationship with the principal applicant because of various reasons including
- Flight from persecution
- Circumstances beyond their control
- Restrictive laws or practices in country of origin
What kind of informal marriages may be recognized?
- Informal marriage
- Informal divorce of an informal marriage
- Informal marriage, following the informal divorce of an informal marriage
In order for these information marriages to be recognized, the couple must provide evidence of their marital relationship such as holding of a marriage ceremony, living together for a period of time, holding themselves out as a couple, and have children together.
It should be noted that certain relationship will still not be recognized including:
- Informal divorce of a legally valid marriage recognized in the place of celebration
- Subsequent marriage (informal or legal) following the informal divorce of a legally valid marriage recognized in the place of celebration.
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