If you watch the overview and you're thinking maybe adjustment of status is the right option
for us, then I'm glad to have you here. Let's go into more detail about who actually qualifies
to do adjustment of status and which other couples would have to do a different option.
The number one requirement for adjustment of status is that the immigrant is physically present
inside the United States when you apply and they have to stay there until the process is complete
unless they get travel authorization, which is possible. We'll talk a little bit about that
in a different video. But the general requirement is you're already here. You're already doing
something else lawfully inside the United States. A couple of important details about that
are that the general rule says that you have to be here legally. That means you would have
some type of visa that's currently valid. You're doing something else
where you're working with an H-1B or maybe you're a student with an F1 student visa or something
like that. In some limited circumstances, it can apply if you have come in with a tourist visa
but that is a tricky situation. I wanted to talk about that specifically.
A lot of times on the internet, all the crazy stuff you read online and things that
people tell you that they swear that their cousin did this and everything was fine and
this is the way it's done. Sometimes people will recommend that people who have a tourist visa,
travel into the United States and then get married and adjust their status. That's something
that used to be more common and it's becoming less common. The government's becoming more strict
about it so I want to caution you about that and explain why that can be a problem.
Part of the issue is that there are two different types of visas in the United States.
Two big classifications. There are immigrant visas, which is what you get when you
consular process, which we talk about in other videos, and then there are non-immigrant visas.
Non-immigrant visas are things that are just for a specific purpose but it's
when the immigrant is planning to come to the US. They have a reason to come to the US
but their reason for coming to the US is only temporary. They're going to be leaving and
going back home after that. Maybe they're coming to go on vacation and they're
getting a tourist visa. Maybe they're coming because they want to study and get a degree
or maybe they're coming for a temporary job. Most non-immigrant visas
have the requirement that the immigrant does not have immigrant intent. Immigrant intent means
you're planning on moving to the US and staying here and living here forever. Not just for
one specific purpose. You're not going home after whatever you're doing is done.
If you come into the US and you have immigrant intent, it can be considered
lying to the government if you're using one of these
non-immigrant visas and you're saying, "I''m just here on vacation." But in your mind, you're
thinking, "I've got a wedding dress in the back and I'm gonna come in, get married and then
adjust my status." If you have that intention of staying at the time when you come into the
US, then the US government considers that a form of lying or fraud or misrepresentation to them
because you used a non-immigrant visa to come in for an immigrant purpose. That's where
we run into more trouble with some of the people who've come in with tourist visas and then want
to adjust their status later on. There are some people who do qualify to adjust their status even
if they came in with a non-immigrant visa. That's really what adjustment of status is. But the most
important factor is what was your intention when you came into the US and whether it changed once
you got here? Let me give you an example of a case that would be okay to do adjustment of status
that you wouldn't have that problem. Say you were an international student and
you got an F1 student visa and you came into the US to get your master's degree.
When you moved to the US, you were coming just to get your master's degree but then at college
you met an American citizen, other student or someone in the community. Eventually, you
fell in love and decided to marry them. You didn't know that was going to happen when you
came in as a student. You were coming just to be a student but then life happened. Plans change and
now, you do have immigrant intent but you didn't at the time that you came in.
That would be okay and that would be an example of where it would be appropriate to use adjustment of
status. It really has to do with what your intention was when you came and when and how
that intention changed to make you decide that you met someone or you fell in love or
sometimes people are visiting and they're just going to visit and they realize, oh my goodness
I'm pregnant actually. Maybe I'll stay because I want to have this kid with my partner
We're going to get married. Different things can come up in life to change what you
think and change your trajectory. That's legal as long as you came in
without the intent of staying. And then, something happened to change your mind once you were here.
The question is, first of all, what was your intention and how did it change?
Those things are important but it also matters what's the government going to think about
what your intention was. There are people who maybe they're just coming to vacation and visit their
boyfriend or meet someone. And once they get here, they say "Oh my gosh, we're in love. Let's stay."
But the US government might be suspicious. That might be true but how are they going to know that?
If the US government thinks that you're lying to them about that, they are able to deny your
adjustment of status. That's one of the main things, that it can be really fact-specific
and depend on your circumstances. If you have any sort of scenario where you're
thinking, "I might have a problem with this whole immigrant intent thing" or "I did come in recently
with a tourist visa" or things like that, you can discuss your specific scenario.
You should discuss your specific scenario with the attorney that you're having the consultation with
to figure out what are the most relevant details in your case.
What would happen is if the US government says, "We think you're lying and you had the
intention of staying here and it was fraud. You used this tourist visa to come and
then, you're just going to get married and we're going to deny this case." They can do that
What they would do is they could look in to see if there's additional evidence.
Sometimes when they start investigating, it's like actually in your home country, you
sold your house, quit your job, sent social media messages to everybody saying, "Bye, I'm moving to
the US forever!" Then they have their evidence that they were right. That you did
intend to move to the United States. That would be a clear-cut case where it would be very
dangerous for you to try to adjust status and you could end up having a very complex situation.
Having a lot of trouble, and if we went the consular processing route, we would avoid
those issues. We can talk strategy or whichever attorney's with you will talk strategy with you
if you think this might be an issue. It is really important to understand that
the US government does not have to find the smoking gun. It's not like a criminal
case where they have to prove that you did it or that you intended. Sometimes, they just say,
"We don't have proof but this was suspicious timing. We just don't believe
you and we're going to deny this. We're going to say you were lying and make you get a waiver to
overcome that." It can really make your life miserable if that happens so we will use our
professional judgment and let you know how risky your case is if you're trying to adjust status and
that there are potential issues there. Sometimes, it's not risky. Sometimes, it is
risky and we can give you a good ballpark of where that is for you. That's one
of the main eligibility issues that we see with people who are considering adjustment of status.
There is something that you may have seen online called the 30-60 -90 day rule.
Most of the advice you'll find about that online is actually outdated
That was previously a rule of thumb. Never really a rule or law, but a rule of thumb where
if you tried to adjust your status, the US government would say, "If you do something
like get married or try to start applying for things
you show indications of any kind of activity like that within 30 days of coming into the US
we're going to assume you were lying to us about your intention when you came. If it was like 60
days, it could go either way. But if it's more than 90 days, we're going to assume
that it's probably fine that was the rule of thumb that they used. Sometimes people would
give you advice online and they'd say things like, "Just come in with a tourist visa and stay at
least 90 days and then you're fine to adjust your status. Maybe that was true previously, however
recent political changes in the US, administrative changes in the US have actually changed that.
They took out the rule altogether. It doesn't exist in the place where it
used to exist within the government employee handbook. They've specifically said
that's not a rule and we don't have to follow it. We have found that they've been
much more inquisitive. They've really looked into a lot of cases in a lot more detail to figure out
whether the immigrant had what intention they had. It's gotten much
more risky to try to play that game. We always want to give you the most
accurate advice and be careful with your valuable life and your future together.
We generally recommend against that but if you have come to visit and honestly
changed your mind once you got here, we can assess your risk factors about applying and just talk
about your specific scenario and figure out try to help you come to decision about whether
adjustment's the right option for you or not considering all of those things.
That was a long intro to the first eligibility requirement which was
that you entered the US and you're physically present in the US
and if you came in with a visa, that you didn't have immigrant intent when
you came. Other requirements are going to be that you have what's called
a current priority date. If you are married to a US citizen or you're engaged to a US
citizen, you're planning on getting married and adjusting status. That part of this eligibility
situation doesn't really apply to you. You don't have to worry about it. But if you're married to
a green card holder who's going to petition for you, that actually will make the case much
more complicated because spouses of green card holders don't automatically get to do
their cases right away. There's actually an annual limit on the total number of spouses of green card
holders that can also become green card holders. Depending on just where the lines are, there's
a way to look up the line and your attorney can show you how to do that, sometimes there's
no wait time. But sometimes, it's like a couple of years extra so in order to adjust your status as
the spouse of a green card holder, you would have to stay in the US continuously lawfully present
and not trigger any immigrant intent issues by traveling or anything like that
to you know visit on your other visa while you waited until you got to the front of that line.
Just be aware that that can be another issue if you're considering adjustment of status and
you're the petitioner's still a green card holder. That's one issue that we do run into
Another requirement for adjustment of status is that the immigrant is admissible, which is a
technical legal term that means you don't have any of the long list of problems that exist in
the laws that prevent people from getting a green card. There's actually a separate video about
inadmissibility and what sorts of things make you inadmissible. We've also included the grounds
of inadmissibility or the problems are included in your screening tool. Those would
apply to any of the marriage-based or even non-marriage-based immigration options in the US
all require you to be admissible. Depending on the problem you have, there can be different ways
to solve that. Those are the main requirements for adjustment. You also are going to have to be
prepared in most cases to stay put in the US, not leaving to travel internationally for we would
say at least three to five months after you file. When you file the application for adjustment
you're filing multiple things at the same time, you can file multiple forms at the same time.
Some of the optional forms you can file are for temporary work authorization and
temporary travel authorization so that you don't get stuck in the US. The problem is it takes at
least 90 days to actually get that. For most people, it's going to be important if they're
going to adjust their status that they're prepared to stay here for three to five months
i say three to five because supposedly it takes 90 days to get those things but sometimes the
government gets backed up and there's not much you can do other than make a complaint that it hasn't
arrived yet. You can't really force them to give it to you faster. Sometimes we do see that the
weights for work permits and travel authorization stretch out a couple of months past that 90 day
time frame. This is really only an issue for people who travel a ton for work.
If you're in and out internationally all the time, this might not be a good option for you.
I do want to mention there are sometimes ways to get emergency travel permits if you say you
file your adjustment and then, you have a family tragedy abroad or something really serious.
I really hope that you're not in this situation. But sometimes, this has happened with clients. We've had
something really urgent happens, someone becomes ill or something like that.
There can be sneaky lawyer workaround ways to get emergency travel permits issued.
But you can't really depend on that and they won't give it to you for things like vacations
or business trips or other things like that. In general, people have to wait the three to five
months approximately. That's another requirement for adjustment of status. Hopefully, that gives
you a good overview of who qualifies to actually do this and whether you might be
one of those people. You can talk about all the details with your lawyer at the consultation