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An alien who is a beneficiary of a permanent resident petition filed by a U.S. citizen spouse within two years after the marriage is granted conditional permanent resident status valid for two years.

When a Filipino permanent resident becomes naturalized as a U.S. citizen, any pending petition filed by him for his unmarried children would be automatically converted from family based second preference to first preference. Considering that the present priority date for first preference is five years longer than second preference, many permanent residents had to hold off applying for naturalization so as not to prolong the waiting period for the pending petition/s for their children.

The law has been amended by the Child Status Protection Act to enable permanent residents to become naturalized U.S. citizens without affecting the preference category of pending second preference petitions for their children. To preserve the priority date of the pending second preference petition, the unmarried son or daughter of the permanent resident must request that the automatic conversion to first preference category not occur and that his case continue to be treated as a second preference petition.

To qualify as a petitioner in a family based immigration petition, the sponsor is now required to have an annual income equivalent to 125% of the poverty line for the household size of the sponsor which will include the beneficiary. If the sponsor is on active duty in the US Armed Forces who is petitioning for the spouse or child, the income required is 100% of poverty line. Hereunder are the 2006 minimum income requirements for the corresponding household size in all states, including the District of Columbia, (except Alaska and Hawaii):