Can I travel to the United States while my application for an immigrant or fiancé(e) visa is being processed. If you intend taking up permanent residence in the United States, you are required to wait until the immigrant or fiancé(e) visa is issued.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) doesn't explicitly forbid green card applicants from traveling while waiting for their adjustment of status application to be processed.
The travel document allows someone living in the U.S. while awaiting their green card to travel abroad without nullifying their green card application. For a family-based green card, it takes anywhere from 10 months to several years or more to process a green card.
If you need to leave the country while waiting on your green card, you can request a travel document from the USCIS. They may opt to issue you an Emergency Advance Parole document, which lets you leave the country and return without a visa.
If you want a case status update about your application, you can: Go to our Case Status Online page and use your Form I-485 receipt number to look up your case status. Submit a case inquiry if you think your application is outside of our normal processing times. Call our USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283.
It may take up to 90 days from the date you entered to receive your permanent resident card. You entered the U.S. using your immigrant visa, You paid the immigrant visa fee AFTER you entered, It may take up to 90 days from the date you made your payment to receive your permanent resident card.
Aside from being a direct relative of an American citizen, your best chances of getting a green card in under 90 days would be through special immigrant programs, which include foreigners who join the U.S. Armed Forces, widows and widowers who have lost their American spouses, some religious workers, and victims of ...
If your current status is H1B or H-4
Adjustment applicants who are in valid H-1B status, and their dependents, can travel abroad and reenter the United States in H status while an I-485 is pending, without having to obtain advance parole.
After filing Form I-485, Application to Adjust Status, and related forms, your I-485 processing time can take anywhere from 8 to 14 months.
There are no restrictions on domestic travel before Form I-485 is approved. However, travel abroad can affect your pending application and your immigration status. Always check with your transportation carrier to ensure you bring the appropriate identification.
An applicant who is in removal proceedings should never travel outside the United States until they are granted legal status and permission to travel abroad. This is true even if the applicant receives advance parole.
Applications for work permits saw an increase of processing times from 3.2 months in FY 2020 to 4.3 months in FY 2022.
You can generally request expedited processing by calling the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833) or by asking Emma after you have obtained a receipt notice. (You can access Emma by clicking on the Ask Emma icon on the top right of this page).
If you're a close relative to a U.S. citizen or a green card holder, they can petition for you to obtain legal permanent residency. This option is the fastest and most popular path to getting a green card.
Many factors may affect how long it takes USCIS to complete an application, petition or request, such as the number of applications, petitions, or requests we receive, workload and staffing allocations, the time a benefit requestor takes responding to a request for more information, as well as policy and operational ...
It takes 7 to 33 months to process a Green Card application.
Family Preference Green Cards processing takes from 1 to 10 years depending on the wait time and yearly caps. Employment Based Green Cards processing could be from 1 year for visas that have a low demand to 4 or 6 years for visas with very high demand.
The bottom line is, the supply of visas often fails to meet the demand, and waiting lists develop in most visa-preference categories. The waits are especially long for people attempting to immigrate from China, Mexico, India, and the Philippines, due to the high demand from those countries.
Yes. Premium processing is available for the Form I-140 classifications indicated on the charts above. Please review to determine your eligibility to either upgrade a pending E13 multinational executive and manager or E21 NIW petition, or to submit an initial E13 multinational executive and manager or E21 NIW petition.
The adjustment of status timeline is generally 8 to 14 months for family-based applications (and often longer for other application types). However, the most significant advantage to adjusting status is that the intending immigrant may remain in the United States with family during the process.
The Interview
The appointment notice will come in the mail within 6 months or sooner after filing. USCIS will give the applicants a few weeks notice to get everything together before the big day.
All adjustment of status applicants has to be interviewed in person by immigration officers unless the interview is waived by USCIS. USCIS officers have the power to waive an interview process for certain individuals in specific circumstances on a case-by-case basis.
Technically, the USCIS has to provide you with a decision on your naturalization application within 120 days of your naturalization interview. In a green card application, the USCIS is supposed to provide you with an official notification of their decision within 30 days of your interview.
It's important to remember to hand in your paper I-94 when leaving the United States, since that's how the U.S. government will track your departure and know that you left the country before your visa expired. You'll use information from your I-94 travel record for many immigration purposes.
How Long Does It Take to Get a Green Card After the Interview? If you were in the country when applying for your green card and submitted Form I-485: Adjustment of Status, you should receive your green card within 30 days of receiving your approval notice.