Having a Green Card offers significant benefits. You can work anywhere in the United States, apply for financial aid for education, be protected from deportation and receive social security benefits.
To enjoy these benefits, you can use the adjustment of status process to get a lawful permanent resident status. However, not everyone is eligible to adjust status.
Here are the parties that can use this process:
Those who fit into a specific immigrant category
You are eligible for adjustment of status if you fit in a specific immigrant category. These categories include Green Card through family, as a special immigrant, through employment, through refugee or asylee status, for human trafficking and crime victims, through registry and victims of abuse.
There are other special categories for certain immigrants, such as immigrants who are Liberian nationals or those born in Canada who possess at least 50% American Indian blood.
Those inspected and admitted or paroled into the U.S.
You are eligible for adjustment of status if you were inspected and admitted or inspected and paroled into the U.S. before filing an adjustment application.
An immigrant who entered the U.S. without being inspected and admitted or paroled by an immigration officer may not be eligible for adjustment of status. Nonetheless, some applicants may be exempted from this rule, such as Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) applicants.
Those in the U.S.
To apply for adjustment of status, you must be present in the U.S. You don’t need to go to your home country to complete the visa processing.
If you are outside the U.S. and want to apply for lawful permanent resident status, you will obtain a visa abroad through consular processing.
If you want to adjust your status in the U.S., you must meet the above-discussed and more requirements. Learn more about this process to determine if you can use it when applying for a Green Card.
