Unique situation - please help

[perry]

Here's the background:

- Wife came to US under a K-1 visa and married her husband within 30 days.
- Submitted I-485 for permanent residency
- Husband DIED 4 months into the marriage and before the I-485 was adjudicated

- I married her last month (her I-485 is still pending) in the United States.

Does my wife have to leave the US? Can I amend paperwork that has already been submitted? Can I be her new sponsor?

Thanks in advance,
Perry

[perry]

Looks like I found something...

Court cases ruled in favor of the surviving alien spouse:

Freeman vs. Gonzales (444F.3d 1031 (9th Cir 2006))
Robinson vs. Chertoff (No. 06-5702, 2007 US Dist. LEXIS 34956)

The ruling:
The court rejected the government's argument that the death of the wife's U.S. citizen husband less than two years after their marriage meant that she was stripped of her immediate relative status. The court relied on the first sendtence of INA 201(b)(2)(A)(i), which says unconditionally that a spouse is an immediate relative. The court noted that nothing in this provision voided her spousal status upon the death of her husband. The court further found that the second sentence of this statute that grants surviving spouses the right to self petition if the U.S. citizen spouse dies after two years of marriage, has no effect on the status of a surviving spouse married less than two years and who properly filed an adjustment of status application prior to the U.S. citizen's death.

WE STRUCK BRAIN!!! (and my lawyer didn't even know about this...incompetents...)

Cheers all,
Perry