🚨 What Happens to Your Immigration Case If the Petitioner Dies?

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Hey guys. So today we're going to be discussing what happens when a petitioner dies after filing an I130 family petition. So there are two specific scenarios I want to discuss.

[00:00:10]One is going to be spouses of US citizens and then every other category of petition because there are special exceptions for spouses of US citizens.

[00:00:21]So let's talk about a different type of petition. Let's say a parent files a petition for a child who's an adult. an adult son or daughter and that parent ends up dying while the family petition is pending. The general rule is that the petition dies with the petitioner. So let me give you a personal example. My grandparents were US citizens but most of their sons and daughters who were my aunts and uncles were not. I mean my parents were US citizens but most of their siblings were not. So, my grandparents filed a petition for five of their adult sons and daughters, which were all of my aunts and uncles. And it was actually my grandpa, my grandfather, who filed these petitions. But he ended up dying before the petitions became current. And with him, all of those petitions died. What we should have done was file a petition from my grandmother and my grandfather for each of the beneficiaries. So, in the event that one of them dies, the other petitions will survive. And the long story short is that none of my aunts and uncles were able to get immigrant visas because those petitions died and we weren't able to reinstate them. So, what is reinstatement? It's called humanitarian reinstatement. It's only available for a small percentage of petitions where you can try to swap in another petitioner for the petitioner who died.

[00:01:51]Humanitarian reinstatement is generally disfavored. It's not super easy to do, but it is an option when the petitioner dies. So, the general rule, the petition dies with the petitioner. The main exception is when you have a US citizen spouse. In that instance, you can convert the petition into a widower's petition. So, let me give you an example. And this will be an example for someone who's within the US applying for adjustment of status, but it applies in other contexts as well, including sometimes the consular process route. So let's say you are in the US and applying for a marriagebased adjustment of status. So your US citizen spouse has filed an I130 and an I485 application for you and both of those applications are pending. Now your US citizen spouse unfortunately passes away, dies while the petition is pending. what happens to that petition? So, luckily in this scenario, luckily is probably a bad word, but in this scenario, we can convert that I130 petition into an I360 widowerower's petition and allow the adjustment of status process to continue. The surviving spouse is still going to need to attend an interview.

[00:03:05]They will need the original death certificate of their deceased US citizen spouse. And during that interview, the immigration officer is going to try to figure out whether they believe that the marriage was real before the US citizen spouse passed away. If so, the immigrant spouse can still continue with the adjustment of status process and become a permanent resident. So, a couple things to note here. What happens if the US citizen spouse dies before you file a petition? Well, in that instance, you have 2 years to file form I360, widowers petition. And the I360 is actually for several different types of petitions. So, you need to be careful when you fill the form out. And you only have 2 years from the date of death to file that. But if you have an I130 already pending and then the US citizen dies while it's pending, you just need to inform USCIS of the death and provide them with a copy of the death certificate. And then when you go to the interview, bring the original and USCIS should automatically convert that I130 into an I360 widowers petition. So there isn't much additional action that you need to take other than inform them. My office handles a lot of family petitions. It's actually it's what we focus our practice on, especially marriage-based petitions. So we deal with these cases a lot. If you're dealing with a situation like this and you don't want to handle it yourself, understandably, you just had, you know, you just lost a family member, you could always reach out to my office and we can assist you. And by the way, this video topic was the suggestion of someone who posted in the comments of one of my other videos. So, if there are specific topics that you guys want me to discuss, please leave a comment informing me what you want me to talk about. If it's a good topic that I think would apply broadly to a large immigration audience, then I'll make the video on that specific topic. But just so you know, I focus my practice on family- based immigration, removal of conditions, naturalization, and deportation defense.

[00:05:04]So, if you want me to make topics about employmentbased visas, that's not something I'm going to do. I only focus on family- based immigration and deportation defense litigation. And if you're new to my channel, I put out several videos each week on these topics. So, be sure to subscribe and I'll see you guys next time for another video.