New U.S. Passport and Visa requirement

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As of November 1, 2016, applicants for United States passports and visas have to remove their eyeglasses for the required application photos. According to the United States Department of State, this change will help eliminate dazzling lights and shadows that can cause delays in the approval process for visas and passport applications.

However, anyone that is currently wearing eyeglasses in their visa or U.S. passport photo do not have to change their photo until it is time to renew the visa or passport.

Applicants may wear eyeglasses only in cases of urgent travel where the need to wear the glasses is documented by a doctor.

According to the United States Department of State, in the last year, more than 200,000 applications for visas and U.S. passports were rejected because of photos that did not meet the current requirements. The biggest problem with the rejected photos were eyeglasses which many times prevented that the applicant from being clearly identified.

The United States Department of State expects more than 20 million passport applications in 2017 - the highest number of applications ever received in one year.

Removal of Conditions on Permanent Residency

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If you obtained conditional resident status through marriage, you can apply to remove the conditions on your residence. If you fail to petition to remove the conditions, you will automatically lose your permanent resident status as of the second anniversary of the date on which you were granted conditional status, and you will become removable from the United States. If you are still married at the time you apply to have the conditions removed, you must apply jointly with your spouse, during the 90 day period immediately before your conditional residence expires.

You may apply for a waiver of this joint filing requirement if:

  • You entered the marriage in good faith, but your spouse subsequently died; or
  • You entered the marriage in good faith, but the marriage was later terminated due to divorce or annulment; or
  • You entered the marriage in good faith, but you have been battered or subject to extreme cruelty by your petitioning spouse; or
  • Your conditional resident parent entered the marriage in good faith, but you have been battered or subject to extreme cruelty by your parent's U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or by your conditional resident parent; or
  • The termination of your status and removal would result in extreme hardship. If you are filing with a request that the joint filing requirement be waived, you may file at any time after you are granted conditional resident status and before you are removed from the U.S.