Extension of Immigration and Naturalization Benefits to Same-Sex Spouses

Policy effect

Following the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor declaring Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional, USCIS and DHS directed adjudicators to apply the place-of-celebration rule to treat same-sex married couples identically to opposite-sex married couples across all family-based immigrant petitions, adjustment of status, naturalization, and derivative classifications. Phase scope: Nationwide implementation for all family-based petitions, employment-based derivative applications, naturalization, and adjustment of status requests involving legally married same-sex couples.

Official source excerpt

Quoted verbatim from the official source below. Ellipses indicate omitted text.

… marriages for purposes of all federal laws, was unconstitutional.[8] In accordance with the Supreme Court decision, USCIS determines the validity of a same-sex marriage by the place-of-celebration rule, just as USCIS applies this rule to determine the validity of an opposite-sex marriage.[9] Therefore, in cases of marriage between persons of the same sex, officers will review the laws of the jurisdiction in which the marriage took place to determine if the jurisdiction recognizes same-sex marriages and the marriage otherwise is legally valid. Since the place-of-celebration rule governs same-sex marriages in exactly the same way that it governs opposite-sex marriages, unless the marriage is polygamous or otherwise falls within an exception to the place-of-celebration rule as discussed above, the legal validity of a same-sex marriage is determined exclusively by the law of the jurisdiction where the marriage was celebrated. If the same-sex couple now resides in a jurisdiction different from the one in which they celebrated their marriage, and that jurisdiction does not recognize same-sex marriages, the officer will look to the law of the state where the marriage was celebrated in order …

Review method

Two separate automated exact-claim source reviews

Other United States changes operative in 2013

• 2013-03-04Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility for Certain Immediate Relatives
• 2013-05-03South Sudan TPS redesignation expands eligibility
• 2013-05-30Comprehensive EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Adjudications Guidance
• 2013-10-01United States expands Syria TPS eligibility through redesignation