How to Immigrate to the US: Pathways, Green Card, and Citizenship

To immigrate to the United States as a permanent resident, you need to qualify under one of four legal channels: a family relationship with a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, a job or investment, selection in the diversity visa lottery, or humanitarian protection as a refugee or asylee. Each channel has its own eligibility rules, its own wait, and its own paperwork, but every applicant must also pass the same admissibility screening for health, criminal history, and financial self-sufficiency before a green card is issued.

Choosing the right pathway is the first real decision, because it determines nearly everything that follows.

The Four Pathways to a Green Card

Family

Family relationships account for more green cards than any other route. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens — spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of citizens aged 21 or older — are exempt from annual numerical caps entirely, so there is no waiting line for a visa number.¹

Other family members fall into capped preference categories:

F1: unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens.
F2A: spouses and minor children of permanent residents.
F2B: unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents.
F3: married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens.
F4: brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens.

Waits in these categories can be long, and they vary sharply by the applicant’s country of birth. As of mid-2026, the State Department’s Visa Bulletin was processing F4 applications from Mexican-born applicants filed in April 2001, more than 25 years earlier; F3 cases from the Philippines filed in late 2005, roughly 20 years back; and F4 cases from “all other countries” filed in late 2008.² Check the current Visa Bulletin for your category and country before assuming a timeline.³

Employment

Employment-based green cards run through five preference categories:

EB-1: priority workers, including people of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives.
EB-2: professionals with advanced degrees or people of exceptional ability.
EB-3: skilled workers, professionals with bachelor’s degrees, and other workers.
EB-4: special immigrants, including certain religious workers and juveniles.
EB-5: immigrant investors who create new commercial enterprises.

Most EB-2 and EB-3 applicants need a U.S. employer to sponsor them and a labor certification showing no qualified American worker is available for the position. EB-1 extraordinary-ability applicants and EB-2 applicants seeking a national interest waiver can self-petition without an employer.⁴

The Diversity Visa Lottery

The Diversity Visa program serves people from countries with historically low immigration to the United States. Federal law allocates 55,000 diversity visas each year, though after set-asides for programs including NACARA, roughly 50,000 are actually available to lottery winners.⁵ Winners are selected randomly from entries. Selection is not the same as a green card; winners still have to meet every standard admissibility requirement.

Humanitarian Protection

People fleeing persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group can seek protection as refugees (applying from abroad) or asylees (applying at a port of entry or after arrival). Both groups become eligible to apply for permanent residency, typically one year after receiving protected status.

Who Can Be Denied a Green Card

Every applicant, regardless of category, has to clear admissibility screening. Federal law groups the bars into health, criminal, security, and public charge grounds.⁶

The Medical Exam

A designated civil surgeon (inside the United States) or a panel physician (abroad) has to examine you, screen for communicable diseases of public health significance, and confirm required vaccinations. Results go on Form I-693. For any I-693 signed on or after November 1, 2023, the exam is valid only for the specific application it was filed with; if that application is denied or withdrawn, you need a new exam for any future filing.⁷

Criminal and Security Screening

A conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude, such as fraud, theft, or certain violent offenses, can make you inadmissible. Drug trafficking creates an inadmissibility that cannot be waived. Two or more convictions of any type carrying combined sentences of five years or more also trigger a bar. A narrow exception exists for a single moral turpitude offense where the maximum possible sentence was one year or less and the actual sentence was six months or less. Security grounds cover terrorism, espionage, and involvement with certain prohibited organizations, and background checks against international databases can add real time to processing.

Public Charge

USCIS looks at whether you’re likely to become primarily dependent on government cash assistance, weighing age, health, family status, financial resources, and skills. Only specific cash programs count against you: Supplemental Security Income, cash assistance under TANF, and state or local general assistance. Non-cash benefits like Medicaid or food assistance do not.⁸

The Financial Sponsor

Most family-based applicants, and some employment-based applicants, need a financial sponsor who signs Form I-864, an Affidavit of Support. This is a legally enforceable contract with the U.S. government.⁹ The sponsor promises to maintain the immigrant at income of at least 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (100 percent for active-duty military sponsoring a spouse or child).

The obligation lasts until the immigrant either naturalizes or accumulates 40 qualifying quarters of Social Security work credit, roughly ten years of full-time work. Qualifying quarters earned by a spouse during the marriage or by a parent while the immigrant was a minor also count. Divorce does not end the obligation. The immigrant, or a government agency that has paid means-tested benefits, can sue the sponsor to enforce it.¹⁰

Forms, Documents, and Fees

The core forms depend on your pathway:

Form I-130, filed by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident for a family member.¹¹
Form I-140, filed by an employer or a self-petitioner for an employment-based case.¹²
Form I-485 for applicants already in the United States who are adjusting status.
Form DS-260 for applicants processing through a U.S. consulate abroad.

Beyond the forms, you’ll need civil documents: birth certificates, marriage certificates, and divorce or death certificates for any prior marriages, plus academic and professional credentials for employment cases. Foreign-language documents require a certified English translation, and the translator has to sign a statement of competence and accuracy.¹³

Consular applicants also need police clearance certificates: from your country of nationality if you ever lived there more than six months, from any current country of residence if you have been there more than six months, and from any other country where you lived for 12 months or more after age 16.

Filing fees change, so check the current USCIS fee schedule before filing. Some applicants qualify for fee waivers. Budget separately for the medical exam, translations, and police clearances, none of which are covered by government filing fees.

Interview and Approval

After the petitioner files Form I-130 or I-140 and USCIS approves it, the applicant waits for a visa number to become available if the category is capped. When it is, the applicant either files Form I-485 to adjust status inside the United States or files DS-260 to consular process abroad. Employment-based adjustment cases average around seven months; family-based cases average closer to 11 months.

USCIS issues a receipt notice, schedules a biometrics appointment for fingerprints and a photo, and then calls the applicant in for an in-person interview at a field office or a U.S. embassy. The officer verifies the information in the application, reviews supporting evidence, and asks about your background and eligibility.

Marriage-based cases involve detailed questioning about the relationship: how you met, your routine together, shared finances, and knowledge of each other’s families. Spouses may be interviewed separately, and inconsistencies can sink an otherwise strong case. Joint bank statements, a shared lease, photos, and similar evidence of a real relationship carry real weight.

Applicants approved after adjustment receive a passport stamp as temporary proof while the physical card is produced. Consular applicants get an immigrant visa in their passport and become permanent residents the moment they enter the United States.

If You Immigrate Through Marriage: Conditional Residence

Here is a trap worth knowing before you apply. If your green card is based on a marriage that was less than two years old when you got permanent resident status, your residency is conditional and your card is valid for only two years.¹⁴

To convert to full permanent residency, you and your spouse must jointly file Form I-751 during the 90 days before the second anniversary of your conditional status. Miss that window and your status terminates automatically, putting you at risk of removal.¹⁵ Waivers of the joint filing requirement exist for divorce, abuse, or a spouse who refuses to cooperate, but they demand substantial evidence.

Keeping Your Green Card

Travel

A green card comes with an expectation that you actually live in the United States. More than one continuous year outside the country creates a presumption that you have abandoned your status, and shorter absences can trigger the same finding if an officer concludes the U.S. is no longer your permanent home.¹⁶ If you know you’ll be abroad more than a year, apply for a re-entry permit on Form I-131 before you leave; you have to be in the United States when you file.¹⁷

Address, Card, and Selective Service

Every non-citizen has to report an address change to USCIS within 10 days of moving, online or by mailing Form AR-11.¹⁸ Male permanent residents between 18 and 25 must register with the Selective Service within 30 days of turning 18 or 30 days of entering the country, whichever comes later; failing to register can affect future naturalization.¹⁹ The card itself is valid for ten years (two for conditional residents) and gets renewed on Form I-90.²⁰ An expired card does not end your status, but it creates practical problems with jobs and re-entry.

Taxes and Foreign Accounts

Permanent residents file federal tax returns and report worldwide income. The IRS treats you the same as a citizen for tax purposes.²¹ If your foreign financial accounts combined exceed $10,000 at any point in the year, you must file an FBAR with FinCEN by April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15.²² Separately, if foreign financial assets exceed $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or $75,000 at any point during it (higher for joint filers), you file Form 8938 with your return under FATCA.²³ Penalties for missing these can dwarf the account balances. This is the area where new immigrants most often stumble, usually because no one told them the obligation existed.

What Can Cost You Your Green Card

Permanent residency is not unconditional. The most serious grounds for removal are criminal:

Aggravated felony conviction at any time after admission, which also bars nearly all relief.
A single crime of moral turpitude within five years of admission where a sentence of one year or more could be imposed, or two such convictions at any time.
Any controlled substance conviction after admission, with a narrow exception for a single offense of possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana.
Any firearms offense involving purchase, sale, or unlawful possession.

Immigration judges have very little discretion on these, especially aggravated felonies.²⁴ Fraud is the other big one: a willful material misrepresentation in the visa process carries a lifetime bar with no statute of limitations. Limited waivers exist for spouses and children of citizens or permanent residents, not for other relationships.

Becoming a U.S. Citizen

Most green card holders can apply for naturalization after five years of permanent residency. Applicants who got their green card through marriage to a U.S. citizen can apply after three years, provided they remain married to and living with that spouse.

The five-year track requires:

Five years of continuous residence immediately before filing.
At least 30 months of physical presence during those five years.
At least three months in the state or USCIS district where you file.
Good moral character during the statutory period.

²⁵

You apply on Form N-400, which costs $760 by paper or $710 online.²⁶ The interview includes an English test covering speaking, reading, and writing, and an oral civics test drawn from a pool of 128 questions; you get 20 and need to answer 12 correctly. Fail either portion and you get a second attempt 60 to 90 days later.²⁷

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1151 – Worldwide Level of Immigration
2
U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin for June 2026
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Family Preference Immigrants
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants
5
U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 502.6 – Diversity Immigrant Visas
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Changes Validity Period for Any Form I-693 Signed on or after Nov. 1, 2023
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Public Charge Resources
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1183a – Requirements for Sponsors Affidavit of Support
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers
13
eCFR. 8 CFR 1003.33 – Translation of Documents
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1186a – Conditional Permanent Resident Status for Certain Alien Spouses and Sons and Daughters
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Removing Conditions on Permanent Residence Based on Marriage
16
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. International Travel as a Permanent Resident
17
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-131, Application for Travel Documents
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AR-11, Aliens Change of Address Card
19
Selective Service System. Who Needs to Register
20
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (Green Card)
21
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Information and Responsibilities for New Immigrants to the United States
22
FinCEN. Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
23
Internal Revenue Service. Summary of FATCA Reporting for U.S. Taxpayers
24
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1227 – Deportable Aliens
25
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I Am a Lawful Permanent Resident of 5 Years
26
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. N-400, Application for Naturalization
27
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Naturalization Interview and Test