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If you read about this in 2023 or 2024, or somebody explained it to you back then, some of what you were told is out of date.
On December 22, 2025, USCIS rewrote the section of its own manual that governs these cases.
Two things about that are worth knowing before anything else.
It took effect immediately. Not on a future date, not for new filings only.
And it reaches cases that were already filed. In its own document, USCIS wrote that it determined these changes may adversely impact some self-petitioners, and that its interest in program integrity outweighed that.
They knew. They wrote it down. You are entitled to know it too.
The Change That Matters Most
There is one change that moves more cases than the rest of them combined, and it is easy to miss because the words look similar.
The old rule: having lived with the abuser at some point in the past satisfied the requirement.
The new rule: you must have lived with him during the qualifying relationship.
USCIS states it directly, and it names what it is replacing: this is a shift from its previous policy allowing the self-petitioner to have resided with the abuser in the past.
Two questions that sound the same and are not
This is the distinction the whole subject turns on, so it gets its own space.
One. Did you live with him during the marriage or the relationship? That is required now.
Two. Are you living with him today? That is not required, and it never was. A pending case is not denied only because two spouses are not living together.
So a woman who left him years ago, and who lived with him while they were married, still meets this. Leaving does not undo it.
And a woman who was married but never shared a home with him during the relationship has a problem in 2026 that she did not have in 2024. That is a real change and pretending otherwise would not help her.
If you are not sure which one describes you, that is a conversation and not a self-assessment.
What Else Moved
How “extreme cruelty” is being read. The regulation still expressly includes psychological abuse, threats and forceful detention, and it has since 1996. What changed is the lens. USCIS shifted emphasis from the abuser’s intent and the effect on you toward the severity of the act itself, and imported dictionary definitions treating “extreme” as meaning in the utmost degree. Both things are true at once: non-physical abuse can absolutely qualify, and the agency is reading severity more strictly than it did. The longer version is here: does psychological abuse count.
Good faith marriage now asks for primary evidence. The update requires a self-petitioner to establish the good faith marriage with primary evidence of the marital relationship, rather than resting on secondary material.
A protection for good moral character was removed. The manual used to say USCIS does not deny a self-petition solely for failing to submit certain good moral character evidence. That language was taken out. Any advice built on that cushion is advice built on something that is gone.
Written statements carry less weight than they did. The update says affidavits may not be given significant weight compared to other evidence, and that USCIS keeps sole discretion over what it finds credible. Statements still matter. They are no longer expected to carry a case by themselves.
Biometrics are now scheduled for good moral character, and results showing a bar can lead to denial or revocation. And certain serious convictions now permanently bar good moral character, which narrows where the abuse-connected exception can reach.
That exception still exists. The law still says an act connected to having been abused does not automatically bar good moral character, and it exists precisely because abusers coerce victims into unlawful acts and because survivors are sometimes charged after defending themselves. It requires a finding. It is not automatic. And it is a lawyer’s question, not a page’s.
What Did Not Change
Some of this is still exactly where it was, and being told what is unchanged is worth as much as being told what moved.
You still file on your own. Nothing in this update asks for his signature or his permission.
The confidentiality protections are still in the law, and this update did not touch them. What they do and where their edges are is here: what confidentiality actually protects.
The extreme hardship element is still gone. Older pages still list it. It is not in the current statute and this change did not bring it back.
And abused children are unchanged, including how the law counts time spent visiting rather than living.
Nobody Here Will Ask Why You Waited
This is the part that needs saying on a page about a deadline nobody set.
A change like this creates a temptation to tell people they should have moved sooner. You will not read that here.
There are reasons people wait, and almost all of them are reasons about safety rather than about paperwork. If the rules changed while you were waiting, that is something that happened to you. It is not something you did.
There is also no clock on this page. No date you have to beat, no window closing. What changed, changed. What matters now is what your actual situation is under the rules as they are.
What This Office Can Tell You With Certainty
Everything you tell us is confidential. Give us the best number to reach you and the best time to call, so we contact you when it is safe for you to talk. This filing happens without him.
One More Thing, About What This Page Is Not
A self-petition is not the same as a case in immigration court. If immigration has already started a case to remove you from the country, that is different work and this office does not do it, though you will be helped to find someone who does.
More on how a self-petition works: the VAWA self-petition.
When It Is Safe for You to Talk
If you are in danger right now, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. They answer 24 hours a day, in English and in Spanish.
When you are ready to talk about the immigration side, call the office at 806-799-3379, or text 806-758-7665 if a call is not safe.
Tell us the best number and the best time. We will reach you then.