How to Get Papers for Immigrants: Pathways, Forms, and Fees

Getting legal immigration papers in the United States means qualifying for one of a limited number of pathways written into federal law, clearing the background checks that come with it, and then either filing from inside the country or attending an interview at a U.S. consulate abroad. There is no general application for legal status. You either fit a category — family, employment, humanitarian protection, or the diversity lottery — or you do not, and the category you fit determines every step that follows.

The paperwork is administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Timelines run from several months to well over a decade depending on the category and the applicant’s country of birth. What derails most people is not the forms themselves but misjudging which pathway applies, missing a disqualifying issue in their background, or leaving the country at the wrong moment.

Which Legal Pathway Fits Your Situation

A Qualifying Family Relationship

The most common route to a green card is a petition filed by a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident relative. The law splits family cases into two tiers.

Immediate relatives — spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of U.S. citizens who are at least 21 — face no annual cap. Once the petition is approved, there is no waitlist for a visa number.¹

Everyone else falls into one of four preference categories with numerical limits: unmarried adult children of citizens, spouses and children of permanent residents, married adult children of citizens, and siblings of adult citizens.² Demand outstrips supply, so waits in these categories can run from several years to more than two decades.

An Employer Sponsor

If a U.S. employer wants to sponsor you, employment-based immigration is divided into priority tiers. The top tier covers people with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives. Lower tiers cover professionals with advanced degrees, skilled workers, and certain special immigrants. Employers generally must complete a labor certification showing no qualified U.S. worker is available for the position before sponsoring you.

Humanitarian Protection

Asylum is available if you are already in the U.S. or at a port of entry and can show persecution in your home country based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Refugee status covers the same grounds but is applied for from abroad.

The U visa protects victims of certain serious crimes who cooperate with law enforcement. Temporary Protected Status lets nationals of designated countries live and work legally in the U.S. during armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions, but TPS on its own does not lead to a green card.³

The Diversity Visa Lottery

The Diversity Visa Program makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available each year through a random lottery aimed at countries with historically low immigration to the U.S.⁴ You need at least a high school education or two years of qualifying work experience.

What Can Block You Before You File

Before spending money on forms, you need to know whether anything in your background makes you inadmissible. USCIS screens for these issues, and discovering one after you have filed — or after you have left the country for a consular interview — can be devastating.

Unlawful Presence Bars

This is where most undocumented applicants run into trouble. If you have been in the U.S. without legal status for more than 180 days and then leave the country, federal law triggers an automatic bar on your return.

More than 180 days but less than one year of unlawful presence, followed by a voluntary departure: three-year bar on re-admission.⁵
One year or more of unlawful presence, followed by departure or removal: ten-year bar on re-admission.⁵

The critical detail is that these bars are triggered by leaving, not by the unlawful presence itself. Someone who has lived here without status for years does not face the bar until they depart. Time before age 18 does not count toward unlawful presence, and time while a genuine asylum application is pending is also excluded.⁵

For people who need to leave the country for a consular interview, a provisional unlawful presence waiver (Form I-601A) may be available. You apply while still in the U.S., get it approved, then attend the interview abroad with the waiver in hand. You must show that being denied admission would cause extreme hardship to a qualifying U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent.⁶ Without this waiver, leaving for your interview could lock you out for a decade.

Criminal History

Convictions for controlled substance offenses, crimes involving moral turpitude such as fraud, theft, or assault with intent to harm, and aggregate sentences of five years or more across multiple convictions all create bars. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering can make you inadmissible even without a conviction if the government has reason to believe you were involved.

Fraud or Misrepresentation

Providing false information on any immigration application creates a permanent bar. A fraud finding means you are barred for life unless you qualify for and receive a specific waiver.⁷ This covers visa applications, adjustment of status, and naturalization.

Public Charge

USCIS evaluates whether you are likely to become primarily dependent on the government for basic needs. Under the current rule, only certain cash benefits count: Supplemental Security Income, cash assistance through TANF, and similar state or local cash welfare. SNAP, most Medicaid, housing benefits, and tax credits are not counted, and benefits received by family members do not count against you.⁸ The officer weighs your age, health, family situation, finances, education, and skills as a whole.

Health Grounds

Applicants with certain communicable diseases, including active tuberculosis, infectious syphilis, and gonorrhea, are inadmissible. You must also show proof of vaccination against a list of diseases specified by the CDC, including measles, hepatitis A and B, tetanus, and polio.⁹ These are assessed during the required medical exam.

Inside the U.S. or Abroad: Which Process Applies

How you entered the country determines whether you can finish your case from inside the U.S. Federal law generally requires that you were “inspected and admitted or paroled” to be eligible for adjustment of status by filing Form I-485.¹⁰ If you entered on a valid visa and overstayed, you were inspected at the border, so adjustment inside the country may be available — especially if you are an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen.

If you crossed the border without inspection, you generally cannot adjust status inside the U.S. Your case would require consular processing abroad, and that departure triggers the unlawful presence bars described above.

A narrow exception under Section 245(i) allows some people to adjust status regardless of how they entered, but only if they were the beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition or labor certification filed on or before April 30, 2001, and they must pay an additional $1,000 penalty fee. If the petition was filed between January 15, 1998, and April 30, 2001, they must also have been physically present in the U.S. on December 21, 2000.¹¹

The Forms, Documents, and Fees

Gathering documents is often the most time-consuming part of the process. Missing paperwork is one of the most common reasons USCIS returns or delays applications, so start early.

At a minimum you will need a valid passport, original birth certificate, and any prior immigration records: visa stamps, I-94 arrival records, previous approval notices. Family-based cases also require proof of the qualifying relationship — marriage certificates, divorce decrees from any prior marriages, and birth certificates establishing parent-child relationships. Documents in another language need certified English translations, which can add up quickly.

The sponsor files Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, a legally binding contract with the U.S. government. The sponsor must show household income at or above 125% of the federal poverty guidelines, or 100% for active-duty military sponsoring a spouse or child.¹² The obligation lasts until the sponsored immigrant becomes a U.S. citizen, earns credit for 40 qualifying quarters of work (roughly ten years), or either party dies. Divorce does not end it.

The Medical Examination

Most green card applicants must complete a medical exam with a USCIS-designated civil surgeon, who records the results on Form I-693 and checks for inadmissible conditions and required vaccinations.¹³ Missing vaccinations can be given during the exam. You pay the civil surgeon directly, and fees vary. A Form I-693 signed by a civil surgeon on or after November 1, 2023, does not expire.¹⁴

Core Forms

Always download the current version from the USCIS website. The wrong edition gets your application rejected.

Form I-130, filed by the U.S. citizen or permanent resident to establish the qualifying family relationship.¹⁵
Form I-140, filed by an employer for employment-based petitions.¹⁶
Form I-485, filed by the applicant to adjust status inside the U.S.¹⁴
Form I-864, the Affidavit of Support from the financial sponsor.
Form I-693, the medical examination report from the civil surgeon.

Filing Fees

USCIS fees are substantial. Under the current fee schedule, the I-130 costs $625 online or $675 by mail. The I-485 costs $1,440 for applicants 14 and older, which now includes the biometric services fee previously charged separately.¹⁷ Employment-based petitions carry additional costs, including an asylum program fee that employers must pay.¹⁸ Between the petition, adjustment application, medical exam, and translations, a single family-based case easily reaches several thousand dollars.

Pay by money order or cashier’s check made out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. To pay by credit or debit card when filing by mail, include Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, on top of the package. USCIS may reject the entire filing if the G-1450 is incomplete.¹⁹

Fee waivers on Form I-912 are available for some USCIS forms, but not for the I-130 or the I-485. The waiver does apply to the naturalization application (N-400), the employment authorization application (I-765), and the petition to remove conditions on residence (I-751), among others, generally for households at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines.²⁰²¹

What Happens After You File

Once USCIS accepts the filing, you receive Form I-797C, Notice of Action, with a case number you can use to track the case online.²² Keep it. It is your proof that you have a pending application.

Shortly after acceptance, USCIS schedules a biometrics appointment at an Application Support Center. A technician takes your fingerprints, photograph, and signature and runs background checks through federal criminal and security databases. Skipping the appointment without rescheduling can stall or end your case.

If your application is missing something or raises a question, USCIS issues a Request for Evidence. The notice specifies what is needed and sets a strict deadline. Missing the deadline, or responding with the wrong documents, typically results in denial on the record as it stands.

Most applicants must attend an in-person interview. The officer reviews originals, verifies your application, and asks questions about the qualifying relationship or your background. Marriage-based cases involve detailed questions about the relationship, living arrangements, and how you met; officers are looking for inconsistencies that suggest the marriage exists mainly for immigration benefits.

Processing times vary by form, field office, and backlog. USCIS publishes times based on how long it took to complete 80% of cases over the prior six months, but individual cases can fall well outside that window.²³ The final decision arrives by mail.

Working and Traveling While You Wait

A pending Form I-485 does not automatically let you work. You have to apply separately for an Employment Authorization Document by filing Form I-765.²⁴ If you already hold a work visa such as an H-1B, you can keep working under it while your adjustment case is pending. Be careful: using the EAD instead of your H-1B can terminate your H-1B status, which narrows your options if the green card is ultimately denied.

Leaving the U.S. with a pending I-485 is risky. If you depart without first obtaining an Advance Parole document by filing Form I-131, USCIS generally treats your adjustment application as abandoned.²⁵ Limited exceptions exist for people in H-1B, H-4, L-1, L-2, K-3, K-4, or V status who travel on their valid visa, but you must be re-admitted in that same category when you return. Do not leave the country while your case is pending without confirming the rules for your specific visa type.

If Your Green Card Is Based on a Recent Marriage

If your green card comes from a marriage that was less than two years old when you became a permanent resident, your card is conditional and valid for only two years. If you do nothing, your resident status automatically terminates on the second anniversary.²⁶

To remove the conditions, you and your spouse file Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence, jointly, during the 90-day window right before your conditional residence expires. Filing early gets you rejected; filing late without good cause gets your status terminated.²⁷ If the marriage has ended or your spouse refuses to file jointly, waivers are available, but the burden shifts heavily onto you to prove the marriage was entered in good faith.

If USCIS Denies Your Application

A denial is not always the end. For most USCIS decisions, you have 30 calendar days from the date of the decision to file Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion. If USCIS mailed the decision, you get 33 days. For revocations of approved immigrant petitions, the deadline is 15 days, or 18 if mailed.²⁸ Late appeals are rejected outright. A late motion may be excused only if you can show the delay was both reasonable and beyond your control.

The denial notice explains why the application was rejected and whether you have appeal rights. Some denials, particularly those based on fraud findings or certain criminal grounds, are much harder to overcome than denials based on insufficient evidence, which may simply require better documentation on a new filing. Because the appeal clock starts immediately, consulting a qualified immigration attorney quickly is more useful than waiting to see whether the situation changes on its own.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1151 – Worldwide Level of Immigration
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Temporary Protected Status
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Overview of Fraud and Willful Misrepresentation
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Public Charge Resources
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC’s Role in Immigration
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through INA 245(i) Adjustment
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-864 Instructions for Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Vaccination Requirements
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers
17
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions on the USCIS Fee Rule
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 2024 Final Fee Rule
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Pay With a Credit Card by Mail
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-912, Instructions for Request for Fee Waiver
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Poverty Guidelines
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C, Notice of Action
23
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Case Processing Times – Case Status Online
24
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Employment Authorization Document
25
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-131, Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records
26
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1186a – Conditional Permanent Resident Status for Certain Alien Spouses and Sons and Daughters
27
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. When to File Your Petition to Remove Conditions
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-290B, Instructions for Notice of Appeal or Motion