If USCIS wanted to ensure lawyers would be able to make an easier case for why our services are necessary, they succeeded brilliantly with the draft I-485 form recently released for comment. Dan Kowalski at Lexis has posted the form and the comments. To be fair, the form now incorporates the G-325 biographical information forms and breaks out many questions on the old form in to individual parts. But this new form is going to look pretty intimidating for the average person.
Here are highlights of what USCIS decided to change based on the comments:
- Adding in the instructions that the Form G-325 is no longer required.
- Changing the question asking for the passport number to clarify that the applicant should use information from the passport used to enter the US.
- In keeping with the times, USCIS agreed to use non-gendered terms to refer to one’s spouse and parents.
- Removal of a question asking for information the current spouse’s employer.
- Removal of several questions asking about the prior spouse including immigration status, country of birth and nationality.
- Removal of questions asking about how applicant’s spouse’s immigration status.
- Removal of questions asking about the immigration status of the applicant’s spouse’s prior spouse.
- Removal of questions asking for the contact information of the applicant’s children.
- Removal of questions asking how a child is related to the applicant (biological, step-child, etc.) since the statute defines a child.
- Question stating “Have you ever entered the United States without being admitted or paroled?” has been changed to “Have you ever entered the United States without being inspected and admitted or paroled?”
Most of the comments did not result in changes. Which has been the norm for USCIS when they put out requests for comment.