Adjustment of status is how a green card is finished inside the U.S.

Often yes, if you are the spouse of a U.S. citizen, the parent of a U.S. citizen who is at least 21, or the unmarried child under 21 of a U.S. citizen, and you were inspected and admitted or paroled. Section 245(c) excuses immediate relatives from the overstay and unauthorized-work bars; most other applicants must have kept lawful status. Under a May 2026 USCIS policy memorandum, officers give an overstay particular weight in their discretion, so the filing should document the equities that offset it.

Generally no. Section 245(a) requires an inspection and admission or a parole, and marriage does not supply either. The exceptions are narrow: § 245(i) for a qualifying petition filed by April 30, 2001, a later grant of parole, certain TPS travel, and categories such as asylum, VAWA, U, and T. Since August 13, 2026, a trip on advance parole can trigger the three- or ten-year unlawful presence bar, and TPS travel may be treated the same way. For most spouses the route is consular processing, often with a provisional I-601A waiver approved first. Do not leave the country before that analysis is done.

Yes, for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, and for preference applicants whose priority date is current on the chart USCIS designates that month. Concurrent filing lets the work permit and travel requests start early, but if the I-130 is denied, the I-485 falls with it. A K-1 who married the petitioner on time files the I-485 without a new I-130.

It applies to adjustment applications postmarked or submitted electronically on or after September 18, 2026, unless your category is exempt, as asylees, refugees, U and T applicants, VAWA self-petitioners, and special immigrant juveniles are. Officers weigh the statutory factors and your own receipt of any means-tested benefit on or after that date; for benefits received before it, they consider only public cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term institutional care at government expense. Benefits your U.S. citizen children receive are not attributed to you, although the fact that a child qualified because your income is low can be considered as evidence of your finances; do not count anyone's benefits as household income on the form. Applications filed earlier stay under the 2022 rule, and federal lawsuits against the new rule are pending. Do not drop coverage without advice, and answer every benefits question on the form completely and truthfully.

Only with a travel document issued before you leave, and only after your history is reviewed. For most applicants that document is advance parole; for asylees and refugees, a refugee travel document. Leaving without it generally abandons the application, except for H-1B, H-4, L, V, and K-3/K-4 nonimmigrants who keep that status and return on a valid visa, and TPS holders traveling with TPS authorization; anyone in removal proceedings abandons it by leaving even with advance parole. Since August 13, 2026, a trip on advance parole also counts as a departure for the unlawful presence bars, and TPS travel may be treated the same way, so anyone who accrued more than 180 days of unlawful presence before leaving can return barred from the green card for three or ten years unless a hardship waiver is approved.

Yes, once USCIS approves the Form I-765 filed with or after the I-485, unless your current status already allows work; filing alone does not authorize it. Work permits for pending applicants are now issued for shorter periods and no longer extend automatically when a renewal is filed, so renewals should go in as early as USCIS allows. Work without authorization before filing is excused for immediate relatives but bars most other applicants.

USCIS charges a separate fee for the I-485, for the petition it rests on, and for any work permit or travel document requested with it, and a § 245(i) applicant also pays an additional sum set by statute unless an exception applies; the civil surgeon charges for the medical exam. Fees are set by regulation and change, so we confirm them on the day of filing; see current USCIS filing fees. Some humanitarian categories are fee-exempt or may request a waiver. Our legal fee is a flat fee quoted in writing after we review the case, attorney attendance at the interview is an optional add-on quoted separately, and payment plans are available.

There is generally no appeal of an adjustment denial. Depending on the reason, the options are a motion to reopen or reconsider filed within 30 days, renewing the application before an immigration judge if USCIS issues a Notice to Appear, or a new application that cures the problem. The judge route is generally closed to someone paroled at the border, unless the denial followed a return on advance parole. Work authorization can end quickly once proceedings begin, so the decision should be reviewed the day it arrives.

If your green card rests on a marriage that was less than two years old when the I-485 was approved, you receive a two-year conditional card and file Form I-751 jointly in the 90 days before it expires, or alone with a waiver if the marriage has ended, there was abuse, or removal would cause extreme hardship; otherwise the ten-year card generally comes with the approval. Most permanent residents may apply for naturalization after five years, up to 90 days early; a resident of three years who has been married to and living with the same spouse throughout, while that spouse was a U.S. citizen, may apply after three, also up to 90 days early. Asylees' residence dates are rolled back one year. See naturalization and citizenship.

TPS alone is not an admission for adjustment if you first entered without inspection; the Supreme Court held so in Sanchez v. Mayorkas. Under current USCIS policy, a return from a trip on TPS travel authorization can supply that admission. Whether the trip also counts as a departure that can trigger the three- and ten-year unlawful presence bars is unsettled: in Matter of Delcarmen-Lara (August 13, 2026), the Board of Immigration Appeals held that advance parole trips are departures for the ten-year bar, and USCIS applies that to the three-year bar as well. Travel also does not erase an old removal order, designations are changing quickly, and a TPS holder who adjusts through a family petition is subject to public charge, so no one travels until the whole sequence is reviewed.