Who can adjust status
The most common route is marriage to a United States citizen. A citizen's spouse is an immediate relative, which means a visa number is always available and the petition and the green card application can be filed together rather than years apart.
Adjustment is not open to everyone inside the country, and the question that decides it most often is how you entered. A person who was inspected and admitted or paroled at a port of entry is generally eligible; a person who entered without inspection generally is not, unless a separate provision applies.
- Spouse of a U.S. citizen — an immediate relative — no wait for a visa number.
- Parent or unmarried child under 21 of a U.S. citizen — also immediate relatives.
- Spouse or child of a permanent resident — eligible, but subject to the visa bulletin.
- Employment-based applicants — where the priority date is current.
What gets filed, and what comes with it
In an immediate-relative case the I-130 petition and the I-485 application are usually filed together. Alongside them we generally file the application for employment authorization and for advance parole, so that a client can work and — with care — travel while the case is pending.
Do not travel on advance parole without asking us first. Departure can have consequences that no travel document cures, particularly where there is unlawful presence in the record.
The interview, and the marriage question
Marriage cases end in an interview. The officer is deciding one thing: whether the marriage is real. That is proved with the ordinary evidence of a shared life — a joint lease or mortgage, joint accounts and insurance, photographs across time, correspondence addressed to both of you, and the testimony of people who know you.
We prepare clients for that conversation rather than coaching answers. Rehearsed couples do badly; prepared couples do well.
Conditional residence, and the two-year card
If the marriage is less than two years old on the day residence is granted, the green card is conditional and expires after two years. A joint petition to remove those conditions must be filed in the ninety days before it expires, and there are waivers of the joint-filing requirement where a marriage has ended or where there has been abuse.
Missing that window is one of the more common ways a settled status is lost. Diary it the day the card arrives.
Questions we are asked about this
Can I adjust status if I entered the country without inspection?
Usually not — entry without inspection is a bar to adjusting inside the United States, which is why many families in that position look instead at consular processing paired with an I-601A provisional waiver. There are exceptions, including Military Parole in Place for the families of service members, so the answer turns on your particular history.
Can I work while my application is pending?
Generally yes. An application for employment authorization is normally filed together with the green card application; processing times vary, and the work permit typically arrives well before the interview.
How long does it take?
It depends on the field office and on the category. Immediate-relative cases are the fastest because no visa number is waited for. We give you a realistic range for your office at the consultation rather than a headline figure.