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What adjustment of status is. Adjustment of status is the procedure for becoming a permanent resident without leaving the United States. It is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1255 and by the regulations at 8 C.F.R. part 245. The alternative is consular processing, in which the immigrant visa is issued at a post abroad and permanent residence begins on admission at a port of entry. Both are final steps rather than routes in their own right: the underlying immigrant classification must come from somewhere else, whether a family relationship, an employment category, the diversity lottery or a humanitarian provision. The list of routes to permanent residence sets out those classifications.
Who may use it. The procedure is open to a person who was inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States, and to a person holding an approved petition as a self-petitioner under the Violence Against Women Act. Beyond that threshold, 8 U.S.C. § 1255(a) sets three conditions:
Why visa availability controls the timing. The third condition is usually the one that decides when an application can be filed at all. Immediate relatives of United States citizens are exempt from the annual numerical limits, so a visa is always available to them and no queue forms. Everyone in a numerically limited category waits for a visa to become available in that category for the country to which the applicant is charged. The rules on country chargeability explain which country that is, which is not always the country of citizenship.
The statutory bars. Meeting the three conditions is not sufficient, because 8 U.S.C. § 1255(c) removes several groups from the procedure altogether. The bars reach crew members, those who continued in or accepted unauthorized employment before filing, those who are in unlawful immigration status on the date of filing, and those who have failed to maintain a lawful status continuously since entry, other than through no fault of their own or for technical reasons. Two further bars apply specifically where the immigrant classification is employment-based: § 1255(c)(7) reaches an applicant under 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b) who is not in a lawful nonimmigrant status, and § 1255(c)(8) reaches anyone who worked while unauthorized as that term is defined at 8 U.S.C. § 1324a(h)(3), or who otherwise violated the terms of a nonimmigrant visa.
Who escapes those bars. The unlawful status and unauthorized employment bar at § 1255(c)(2) does not apply to immediate relatives as defined at 8 U.S.C. § 1151(b), nor to the special immigrant categories described at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(H), (I), (J) and (K). This is the practical reason the immediate relative route is so often the one that remains open after a status lapse when other routes have closed.
The limited allowance for employment-based applicants. A separate exception at 8 U.S.C. § 1255(k) allows an applicant in the first, second, third or fifth employment preference, and a religious worker classified in the fourth, to adjust despite the bars at § 1255(c)(2), (c)(7) and (c)(8), provided the applicant was lawfully admitted and the aggregate period of unlawful status, unauthorized employment or other violation since that admission has not exceeded 180 days. The allowance is cumulative rather than per incident, and it is measured from the lawful admission, so short lapses can consume it well before an applicant realizes.
Marriage during removal proceedings. Where the immigrant classification rests on a marriage entered into while the applicant was in exclusion, deportation or removal proceedings, 8 U.S.C. § 1255(e) bars adjustment unless the bona fide marriage exception in that subsection is established.
The grandfathering provision. A narrow provision at 8 U.S.C. § 1255(i) allows a person who entered without inspection, or who falls within one of the classes barred by § 1255(c), to apply nonetheless. It reaches only those who are the beneficiary of a petition under 8 U.S.C. § 1154, or of an application for labor certification under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(5)(A), filed on or before April 30, 2001. Where that petition or labor certification was filed after January 14, 1998, the beneficiary must also have been physically present in the United States on December 21, 2000. Spouses and children who qualify as derivatives under 8 U.S.C. § 1153(d) are covered along with the principal. These cut-off dates are fixed in the statute and do not advance, so the provision protects a closed group and is not a general cure for unlawful presence. An additional sum is payable with the application.
Working while the application is pending. Filing an adjustment application creates its own basis for employment authorization: 8 C.F.R. § 274a.12(c)(9) covers a person who has filed under part 245, and that regulation also provides that such a person is not treated as an unauthorized worker for the purposes of the bar at § 1255(c)(8) while the application is pending. Separately, a person who already holds a nonimmigrant status that permits employment may generally continue working under that status while the application is pending, provided the status is genuinely maintained. That question is taken further on the page dealing with continued work authorization after filing.
Travel while the application is pending. Departure from the United States is the most common way an adjustment application is lost. Under 8 C.F.R. § 245.2(a)(4)(ii), the departure of an applicant already in exclusion, deportation or removal proceedings is deemed an abandonment of the application. For an applicant not in proceedings, departure is likewise deemed an abandonment unless advance parole was granted before the departure and the applicant was inspected and paroled on return. A narrow exception preserves the application where the applicant travels in lawful H-1 or L-1 status, remains eligible for that status, returns to resume employment with the same employer, and holds a valid visa where one is required; the exception extends to a dependent in H-4 or L-2 status whose principal qualifies. The page on advance parole covers the permission itself.
Parole is permission to travel, not a guarantee of admission. If an application is denied after the applicant has travelled on advance parole, the regulation treats the person as an applicant for admission, subject to sections 212 and 235 of the Act. The document therefore preserves the pending application; it does not convert the return into a right of entry.
Filing the petition and the application together. Where a visa is immediately available, 8 C.F.R. § 245.2(a)(2) permits the immigrant petition and the adjustment application to be filed concurrently rather than in sequence, on the conditions set out in that provision. Where no visa is immediately available, the petition is filed and adjudicated first and the adjustment application waits for the applicant's place in the queue.
What approval and denial mean. Adjustment is discretionary: the statute permits it rather than requiring it, so an applicant who satisfies every condition can still be refused on discretionary grounds. Approval makes the applicant a permanent resident as of the date of the decision, and residence for later purposes such as naturalization is counted from that date rather than from the original entry.
Related pages on this site. The immigrant classifications that adjustment of status completes are listed on the page of routes to permanent residence, and developed on the family-based and employment-based immigration pages. Timing questions are addressed under country chargeability, work authorization under continued work authorization after filing, and travel under advance parole. Obligations that begin once the status is granted are covered under keeping permanent resident status. Questions about a particular set of facts can be raised through the contact page.