Getting a "green card"
In order to become a lawful permanent resident — to "get a green card" — you must have an immediately available immigrant visa, be admitted after inspection, and not be otherwise inadmissible. Individuals who entered the U.S. without inspection — by crossing the border — are not eligible to adjust their status without first obtaining a provisional waiver of inadmissibility. Immigrant visas are different from non-immigrant visas, which are visas for a specified period of time in a specified category, after which the foreign national returns home. Immigrant visas are filed to obtain lawful permanent residence, and presumably, later on, citizenship. The foreign national wants to stay in the U.S.
There are three ways to obtain an immigrant visa: (1) family-based petitions, (2) employment-based petitions, and (3) the diversity lottery. The Trump Administration ended the Diversity Lottery on December 18, 2025. Before that, visas were available to foreign nationals whose home countries had less than 5% representation in the U.S.
VAWA, asylum, and refugee paths
You can also obtain an immigrant visa as a self-petitioning spouse, parent, or child of an abusive United States Citizen or lawful permanent resident, under the Violence Against Women’s Act. As a woman, I am sensitive to abuse that is not physical but just as damaging: emotional and verbal abuse. VAWA cases are among my favorite types of immigrant visas to represent, and I am always thrilled when my clients obtain their immigrant visas for themselves, despite the abuse. You can also obtain lawful permanent residence, and a green card, with an approved application for asylum or for refugee status.
Family-based cases — the four requirements
In family-based cases, lawful permanent residence is obtained when you have (1) been admitted after inspection into the United States; (2) have an immediate immigrant visa; (3) are otherwise not inadmissible; and (4) possess good moral character.
You are admitted after inspection when you go through a recognized airport or seaport and present your passport to an Immigration Officer who looks at you, looks at your passport, looks at their screen, and waives you through. A United States Citizen has an immediate immigrant visa for their spouse, their parent, or their child under 21 years of age. Conversely, a United States Citizen adult child has an immediate immigrant visa for their parent, or their spouse.
Finally, the requirement of good moral character, which is the most important driver for both adjustment of status and for naturalization, is based, for the most part, on the non-commission of crimes and the timely payment of taxes. If you have committed a crime, or crimes, this alone may not deprive you of good moral character, but you will need an experienced immigration attorney like me to make the legal arguments necessary to persuade USCIS that the crimes did not deprive you of good moral character.
Conditional residence & short-term marriages
When the petitions and applications have all been approved, and the green card issued, it will be for 10 years — unless it was obtained through marriage and that marriage was less than two years at the time of approval. In that case, the card, when issued, will be a conditional residence card, and the spouses will have to jointly file to lift the conditions prior to the two-year anniversary, or the foreign national spouse will be subject to removal. You can seek a waiver of the joint-filing requirement to lift the conditions on residence, but there is a required showing, and you need an experienced immigration attorney to explain that to you and help her prepare that showing.
Processing times have changed
Processing times for family-based immigrant visa applications and petitions, as with all applications and petitions for immigration benefits, have increased. This began with COVID, when USCIS stopped processing applications or taking biometrics from mid-March of 2020 to June 4, 2020. After that, many officers and agents at USCIS didn’t want to go back to work because they enjoyed being home. USCIS doesn’t allow remote employment, so the number of agents and officers processing applications and petitions was significantly reduced. When President Biden came into office, there was a surge of applications and petitions because the Administration was no longer anti-immigrant. Processing times increased when the demand exceeded the supply. It has only gotten worse with this Administration.
USCIS estimates that 80% of petitions for immigrant visas for relatives now take 17 months to process, and 80% of adjustment-of-status applications take 21.5 months to process. When I began my immigration practice, immigrant relative petitions took 5–8 months, and adjustment-of-status applications were typically processed at interview in that same time frame.
Most of my clients’ cases are approved in much less time. My record is 62 days for the immigrant visa petition and 63 days for the adjustment of status application in a marriage-based case.
How the process differs by petitioner status & beneficiary location
The process to apply in family-based immigrant petition and adjustment-of-status cases differs if the beneficiary — the foreign national — is in the United States, and if the petitioner is a United States Citizen, or a lawful permanent resident.
If the petitioner is a United States Citizen and the beneficiary is in the United States, the beneficiary is able to adjust status in the United States, and all petitions and applications are filed at the same time. However, if the beneficiary is abroad, the petitioner can only file for the immigrant visa and the beneficiary has to wait until that petition is approved to begin consular processing, when USCIS sends the Approval of the immigrant visa petition to the National Visa Center, and then paying fees, completing an online immigrant visa application, and uploading required documents. When the National Visa Center determines that the applicant is "documentarily qualified," he or she attends an immigrant visa interview at a U.S. Consulate or Embassy in the foreign national’s home country. However, it is important to keep in mind that the current administration has paused immigrant-visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries — if the foreign national's country is on that list, the case will not move forward until the pause is lifted. If the pause does not apply, the foreign national enters the U.S. with the immigrant stamp and is a lawful permanent resident upon admission. However, if the petitioner is a lawful permanent resident, the beneficiary must wait until visa numbers are current for the spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents. With one notable exception, these visas have always been "backlogged," and are currently available for immigrant visa petitions filed on or before February 1, 2024.
Employment-based cases — longer, more involved
Employment- (work-) based visa cases take longer and are more involved. In employment-based cases, the process of applying for an immigrant visa and then adjusting your status — and the time that will take — depends on what you do and how qualified you are. The majority of applicants are considered "Skilled and Unskilled Workers," and for those visas, the process is in three steps:
- First, you have to obtain a Labor Certification from the Department of Labor. This requires identifying your job, and the code, then obtaining the prevailing wage for that job in the area that you live and, if you will supervise others, for that level. Then you have to prove that you have made sufficient recruitment efforts to assure the Department that no otherwise qualified U.S. workers have not been unfairly prevented from applying for the job. The Department can call for an audit if it is not convinced of the recruitment efforts, and then conduct their own — although I have never had a case audited.
- When all of the applications have been processed and the Labor Certification issues, you then file for an immigrant visa from the employer.
- Then you can file to adjust your status, if the visa is available.
It takes about 17 months to complete the labor-certification process. USCIS estimates that 80% of petitions for alien workers filed by employers in that preference category are being processed in five months. However, in the Visa Bulletin issued by the U.S. Department of State monthly which establishes visa availability, the visas for Skilled and Unskilled Worker visas are currently being processed for priority dates of October 1, 2023 and earlier.
Exceptional ability, professors, executives, NIWs
Certain individuals may have exceptional ability, and these applicants have visas that are current and available upon approval of their self-filed petition for alien worker, but they have to meet three of ten statutory criteria to be eligible to apply, and USCIS estimates that it will take 23.5 months to process a self-filed petition for alien worker in that category. Those who are outstanding professors or researchers, are multinational executives or managers, are members of a profession holding an advanced degree, or are of exceptional ability who warrant a National Interest Waiver of the Labor Certification process, can self-file the petition for alien worker, and when approved, adjust status depending on visa availability.
Currently, the Visa Bulletin’s visas are presently being processed for petitions for alien worker received on or before October 15, 2024. USCIS estimates that 80% of petitions for alien worker filed by outstanding professors or researchers are being processed in 19 months; for a multinational executive or manager, 24 months; or for members of a profession holding an advanced degree, or of exceptional ability who warrant a waiver of the Labor Certification requirement, 3.5 months.
So the process of obtaining an immigrant visa through employment can take many years, and even after you have the Labor Certification, your visa number may not be current. There is also the requirement that the applicant remain in good status at all times, at the time of filing, at the time that the immigrant visa is issued, and at the time that the visa becomes current, the case is approved, and the applicant may adjust their status to that of a lawful permanent resident. Because of the issues regarding time in process, visa availability, and remaining in status, it is extremely important to have an experienced immigration attorney review your intentions and your qualifications with you to determine the best path forward for you.
About 80% of family-based I-485 applications in South Florida complete in about eight months. Marriage-based cases with an immediate immigrant visa from a U.S. citizen spouse can move faster. My own record in a strong marriage-based case, one with significant supporting documents, is 62 days for the immigrant visa petition and 63 days for the adjustment of status. Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Timeline depends on the field office, the underlying facts, and how strongly the bona fide marital relationship in the marital household was documented.
Yes, if you apply for and receive employment authorization. The Form I-765 is filed concurrently with the I-485 in most cases, and the EAD typically issues within several months of filing. Some applicants have a statutory basis to work without a separate EAD — for example, certain L-1 holders adjusting status — but most AOS applicants need the EAD.
You are generally not eligible to adjust status from within the U.S. without first obtaining a provisional waiver of inadmissibility. The process involves the I-601A waiver filed while you are in the U.S., followed by consular processing at a U.S. consulate in your home country once the waiver is approved. This is more involved than a standard AOS — we review the entire record before filing to confirm eligibility and build the hardship showing the waiver requires.
Adjustment of status is the path for beneficiaries already in the U.S. who are eligible to apply for a green card without leaving. Consular processing is the path for beneficiaries abroad — the immigrant visa petition is filed in the U.S., approved, then sent to the National Visa Center, and finally interviewed at a U.S. embassy in the home country. Which path applies depends on where the beneficiary is and whether they are eligible to adjust from within the U.S.
Only if you have an Advance Parole document (Form I-131). Without it, leaving the U.S. while your I-485 is pending will typically be treated as an abandonment of the application. The Advance Parole is filed concurrently with the I-485 in most cases. Even with Advance Parole, certain travel scenarios — particularly for applicants who entered without inspection — carry real risk; we talk through them before any trip.