Eligibility for INA 245 adjustment of status turns on three things: you were inspected and admitted or paroled on your most recent entry, an immigrant visa is immediately available to you, and you are admissible to the United States. Meeting those three does not end the analysis, because Section 245(c) then bars several categories of applicants — most commonly people who worked without authorization or fell out of lawful status — unless a statutory exception applies to you.
The Three Baseline Requirements
First, inspection. On your last entry, an immigration officer at a port of entry had to review your documents and either admit you or parole you in.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence Entering without inspection closes the standard 245(a) door. A narrow exception under 245(i), described below, may still be available if you have an old qualifying petition.
Second, an approved basis for an immigrant visa. That usually means an approved or concurrently filed Form I-130 from a qualifying family member or Form I-140 from an employer.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Concurrent Filing of Form I-485
Third, immediate visa availability at the moment you file. The Department of State’s monthly Visa Bulletin controls this for preference categories. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens — spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of adult citizens — are not subject to numerical limits and always have a visa immediately available.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Concurrent Filing of Form I-485 Everyone else has to wait for their priority date to become current.
Who Section 245(c) Bars
Meeting the three baseline requirements is not enough on its own. Section 245(c) disqualifies applicants who worked without authorization, fell out of lawful immigration status before filing, or failed to maintain continuous lawful status since entering.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence The trap here is how easily these bars are triggered. Starting a job before your EAD was actually approved counts. Letting a nonimmigrant status lapse for a few weeks counts. Changing H-1B employers in a way that broke the terms of your admission counts.
Other categories are barred by their entry type:
- Crewmen admitted on a D-1, D-2, or C-1 visa cannot use 245(a).3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 – Other Barred Adjustment Applicants
- Visa Waiver Program entrants cannot adjust unless they qualify as an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 – Other Barred Adjustment Applicants
- Employment-based applicants must be in lawful nonimmigrant status when they file, subject to the 245(k) exception described below.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
These bars are separate from the grounds of inadmissibility that can also block a case, which are addressed further down.
The Immediate Relative Exemption
If you are the spouse, unmarried child under 21, or parent (of a citizen who is at least 21) of a U.S. citizen, most of the 245(c) bars fall away. An immediate relative can adjust status even after unauthorized employment, a lapse in lawful status, a failure to maintain continuous status since entry, or admission under the Visa Waiver Program.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Inapplicability of Bars to Adjustment The statute exempts immediate relatives from these bars by name.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
What the exemption does not do is waive the inspection requirement. An immediate relative who entered without inspection still cannot use 245(a) on that basis alone. And the exemption does not touch grounds of inadmissibility. A criminal conviction or a finding of fraud remains an obstacle regardless of your relationship to a citizen.
The 180-Day Exception in Employment-Based Cases
Section 245(k) is a narrower rescue provision for applicants in the EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, and certain EB-4 categories. If you were lawfully admitted on your most recent entry and your combined time out of status, working without authorization, or otherwise violating your terms of admission adds up to 180 days or fewer, the 245(c) bars that would normally apply do not disqualify you.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
The count is strict. Every calendar day of unauthorized work counts, including weekends and holidays. For other status violations, the clock stops when USCIS receives your properly filed I-485. You do not file anything extra to invoke 245(k); USCIS evaluates it automatically. It does not cure entry without inspection, and it does not waive inadmissibility.
The 245(i) Grandfathering Path
Section 245(i) is the widest of the exceptions, but it is closed to anyone without an old qualifying petition. If you are the beneficiary of a Form I-130, Form I-140, or labor certification application filed on or before April 30, 2001, you may adjust even after entry without inspection, unauthorized work, or lapses in status.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card through INA 245(i) Adjustment If the qualifying petition was filed after January 14, 1998, you also must have been physically present in the United States on December 21, 2000.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
Using 245(i) means filing Supplement A to Form I-485 and paying a $1,000 penalty fee on top of the regular I-485 filing fee. Children under 17 are exempt from the penalty.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence Like 245(k), 245(i) lifts the adjustment bars but does not waive inadmissibility grounds.
Inadmissibility Is a Separate Hurdle
Even applicants who clear 245(a) and any 245(c) bar have to be admissible. Grounds of inadmissibility cover criminal history, security concerns, health-related issues, and fraud or misrepresentation. Some are waivable through Form I-601, which covers waivers under INA 212(h) for certain criminal grounds and 212(i) for fraud or misrepresentation.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility A granted waiver covers only the specific grounds and incidents identified in the application.7eCFR. 8 CFR 1212.7 – Waiver of Certain Grounds of Inadmissibility
Most I-601 waivers require a showing that denial would cause extreme hardship to a qualifying U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident relative. USCIS looks at the totality of the circumstances, weighing family ties, the qualifying relative’s health, financial impact, country conditions abroad, and the relative’s ties to the United States.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Extreme Hardship Considerations and Factors Ordinary consequences of denial, like family separation or economic difficulty on their own, do not meet the standard. The hardship has to exceed what a family in the same situation would normally experience.
None of the adjustment exceptions above changes this. Immediate-relative status, 245(k), and 245(i) each remove specific 245(c) bars; they do not make an inadmissible applicant admissible.
Age-Out Protection for a Child Beneficiary
A child listed on a petition can lose eligibility by turning 21 while the case is pending. The Child Status Protection Act freezes the child’s age by a formula: biological age on the date a visa becomes available, minus the number of days the underlying petition was pending.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) If the result is under 21, the child still counts as a “child” for immigration purposes.
There is a second requirement that trips people up. The child must “seek to acquire” permanent resident status within one year of visa availability, which in practice means filing the I-485 or taking equivalent action within that year.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Updates Policy Guidance for the Sought to Acquire Requirement Under the Child Status Protection Act Missing that deadline can extinguish eligibility altogether, though USCIS recognizes narrow extraordinary-circumstances exceptions.
Working Through Your Own Case
The eligibility analysis runs in the same order every time. Start with entry: were you inspected and admitted or paroled? If no, only 245(i) can save the case. If yes, ask whether a visa is immediately available in your category and whether you are admissible. Then walk through 245(c): any unauthorized work, any period out of status, any barred entry type like VWP or crewman. If a bar applies, check whether the immediate-relative carve-out, 245(k), or 245(i) removes it. If an inadmissibility ground applies, ask whether a waiver is available and whether you have a qualifying relative who would suffer extreme hardship. A case that survives all of those questions is a case that can adjust.