Adjustment of status: Get a Green Card if you are in the United States | USAGov (2024)

FAQs

Adjustment of status: Get a Green Card if you are in the United States | USAGov? ›

If you are currently in the United States on a nonimmigrant visa, you may be able to stay and apply for adjustment of status. This will allow you to become a permanent resident and get a Green Card. Before you can apply for adjustment of status, you or someone else must file an immigration petition for you.

If you are currently in the United States and you meet certain other requirements, you may file Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status to apply for a Green Card without leaving the country. This is called “adjustment of status.”

If you're applying under the general 5 year rule you must've been physically present in the U.S. for at-least 30 months prior to filing. If you're applying under the 3 year rule as the spouse of a U.S. citizen you must've been physically present for at-least 18 months.

There are a number of benefits to adjusting your status, including being able to remain in the United States while your application is pending, being able to work in the United States without having to obtain a separate work permit, and having your spouse and unmarried children under 21 years of age included in your ...

You can anticipate that adjusting status to permanent resident will take about 8 to 14 months for family-based green card applications. For a look at what happens after filing your adjustment application, review the Form I-485 processing time.

For that you have to be brought before the immigration court and show 10 years of residence, good moral character and exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a qualifying relative, like a US citizen spouse or minor child.

By filing Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, applicants not only express their intention to become permanent residents but also can continue living in the U.S. while their application is pending. During this waiting period, applicants often need to support themselves financially.

An absence of more than 6 months (more than 180 days) but less than 1 year (less than 365 days) during the period for which continuous residence is required (also called “the statutory period”) is presumed to break the continuity of such residence.

The bill removes this entry cutoff date and opens up the program to eligible individuals who have resided in the United States for at least seven years. Existing requirements (e.g., the individual must not be inadmissible or deportable due to certain grounds related to crime or terrorism) continue to apply.

During the seven-year period of potential eligibility, non-citizens are expected to work toward becoming U.S. citizens. If they do not, eligibility will stop after seven years. Example: Elliot arrives in 2008, and is given refugee status, which establishes his potential SSI eligibility for seven years through 2015.

What is the 90 day rule for adjustment of status? ›

What Is the 90-Day Rule? According to 9 FAM 302.9, an alien who engages in conduct inconsistent with their nonimmigrant status within a 90-day period of entering the US may become inadmissible for the Green Card or even permanently barred from entering the US.

Unauthorized Employment, Unlawful Status or Failure to Maintain Status: Aliens who have engaged in unauthorized employment, or who were not in lawful status at the time of filing the adjustment application, or who have failed to continuously maintain status for even a single day since their entry into the United States ...

Upon approval, the applicant is mailed a Form I-551, Permanent Resident Card. The date the Form I-485 is approved becomes the date of adjustment, which in turn determines how soon the newly adjusted Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) may apply for U.S. citizenship. Permanent Resident Cards are valid for ten years.

Depending on your situation, the time it takes from filing Form I-485 to getting a green card can be anywhere from a few months to a few years. Some factors affecting this process include your eligibility to adjust your status.

Approximately 8 to 14 Months After Filing.

What is the fastest you can get a green card? The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program offers one of the quickest routes to obtain a green card. But it's based on luck. Family-based visas for immediate relatives also offer faster paths, typically within 1-2 years.

If you have an application for a green card in progress, you can work while your case is being evaluated by USCIS. Before you can work, though, you will need to apply to USCIS for permission to work, which is to obtain employment authorization.

In most cases, spouses who are eligible to adjust status prefer to do so. It allows the foreign spouse to stay in the United States while waiting for the marriage green card.

It depends on a variety of factors. However, in general, if your family member is already in the U.S. on a different visa (i.e. B-2 visitor visa, F-1 student visa, H-1B nonimmigrant worker, etc.), s/he can remain in the U.S. and can travel back and forth to the U.S. while your visa petition is pending.