DHS recently announced that a green card applicant who is the husband or wife of a deceased US Citizen may be eligible to receive temporary protection from deportation if he or she is widowed before the two year anniversary of the marriage. The announcement comes in response to an Los Angeles immigration judge’s ruling that ordered USCIS to review cases where immigrants whose spouse died before the green card process could be completed were denied green cards under the “widow penalty”. This “deferred action” only prevents deportation – legislation will have to be passed in order to make the green card permanent.
See also, Green Card Denials Los Angeles