An approved EB-2 NIW petition is a milestone, not the finish line. What happens after EB-2 NIW approval depends on one thing above all: whether an immigrant visa number is available for your country of chargeability. If it is, you can move directly to the green card stage by filing for adjustment of status inside the United States or by consular processing abroad. If it isn’t, you wait, and you spend that wait maintaining valid nonimmigrant status and protecting your priority date. Applicants born in India or mainland China should expect the wait to be measured in years.
Check the Visa Bulletin Before You File Anything
The U.S. Department of State publishes a monthly Visa Bulletin with two charts: Final Action Dates (when a visa can actually be issued) and Dates for Filing (the earliest date you might submit your adjustment application). Each month, USCIS announces which chart adjustment applicants may use. If more visas are available than known applicants, USCIS points to the Dates for Filing chart; otherwise, applicants must use Final Action Dates.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin
Your priority date for an EB-2 NIW is the date USCIS accepted your I-140 for processing.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Availability and Priority Dates If your priority date is on or before the cutoff for your country in the relevant chart, you can proceed. A “C” (current) means anyone in that category can file.
For most countries, EB-2 is often current or close to it, and you can file soon after I-140 approval. India and mainland China are a different story. As of the April 2026 Visa Bulletin, the EB-2 Final Action Date for India is July 15, 2014, and for mainland China it is September 1, 2021.3U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin for April 2026 An India-born applicant who filed an I-140 in 2024 could wait a decade or more, and retrogression (cutoff dates moving backward when demand exceeds supply) can lengthen that further.
Adjustment of Status or Consular Processing
Once your priority date is current, or will be current when USCIS reaches your application, you pick one of two routes.
Adjustment of Status (AOS) is filed from inside the United States without leaving. You must have been inspected and admitted or paroled. This is the usual choice for people already working in the U.S. on H-1B, L-1, O-1, or similar visas.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
Consular Processing (CP) finishes the case at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad. It’s the route if you live outside the U.S., or if you entered without inspection and can’t adjust status.
Both paths lead to the same lawful permanent resident status. Your location, immigration history, and personal circumstances decide which fits.
Filing for Adjustment of Status
Adjustment starts with Form I-485. The filing fee is $1,440 on paper or $1,375 online, and biometrics is now included in that amount rather than billed separately. The fee is the same regardless of age or category, and fee waivers exist only for narrow situations like VAWA self-petitions or T/U visa cases.
Most NIW applicants file two additional forms at the same time: Form I-765 for work authorization and Form I-131 for travel permission. Filing them concurrently lets you work and travel while the green card application is pending, which matters because processing often stretches past a year.
Your package needs a birth certificate, passport-style photos, and a completed medical exam (Form I-693) from a USCIS-designated civil surgeon. The medical exam typically costs between $150 and $800 depending on the provider and vaccinations needed. After filing, you’ll receive receipt notices and a biometrics appointment. Most employment-based applicants aren’t called in for an interview, though USCIS can schedule one in complex cases.
USCIS evaluates whether you’re likely to become a public charge by looking at the totality of your circumstances: employment history, education, skills, income, assets, and any past receipt of public cash assistance or long-term government-funded institutionalization.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Adjudicating Public Charge Inadmissibility for Adjustment of Status Applications For most NIW applicants, who hold advanced degrees or show exceptional ability, this rarely becomes an issue.
Consular Processing Through the National Visa Center
If you’re abroad or choose to finish overseas, your approved I-140 is forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC) once your priority date is current. The NVC sends instructions to pay two fees: the immigrant visa application processing fee ($345 for employment-based cases) and, where applicable, the Affidavit of Support review fee ($120).6U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services After paying, you complete the online immigrant visa application (Form DS-260).
You then submit civil documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, and police clearances, along with any required financial evidence. Once the NVC considers you “documentarily qualified,” it schedules your interview at the designated U.S. embassy or consulate. Before the interview, you complete a medical exam with an embassy-approved physician in that country. At the interview, a consular officer reviews everything and, if satisfied, stamps an immigrant visa in your passport.
After visa approval but before you travel to the U.S., you must pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee ($235) online.7U.S. Embassy. USCIS Immigrant Fee USCIS will not produce your physical green card until this fee is paid.
Bringing Your Spouse and Children
Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can apply alongside you as derivative beneficiaries, your spouse under E-21 and your children under E-22. That includes biological children, legally adopted children, and stepchildren where the stepparent relationship was established before the child turned 18. Parents, siblings, and other relatives cannot be included.
For adjustment of status, each family member files their own Form I-485, with their own filing fee, linked to your approved I-140. For consular processing, each family member completes a separate DS-260. If your family members are abroad and you already have your green card, they can apply later through the “follow-to-join” process using Form I-824, provided the marriage or parent-child relationship existed when your green card was approved.
Keeping a Child From Aging Out
Long waits create a real risk: your child turns 21 during the backlog and loses derivative eligibility. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) addresses this by calculating a “CSPA age” that may be younger than actual age. USCIS takes the child’s age on the later of two dates, the I-140 approval date or the first day of the month a visa number became available, then subtracts the number of days the I-140 was pending.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) If the resulting CSPA age is under 21 and the child stays unmarried, they still qualify.
For India-born applicants with multi-year waits, this calculation is critical. If your I-140 was pending 14 months, that full period comes off your child’s age. If the remaining gap still pushes them past 21, they’d need a separate petition, so plan for that early.
Work and Travel While Your I-485 Is Pending
Once your I-485 is filed, you can request an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) by filing Form I-765 and Advance Parole for international travel by filing Form I-131.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. About Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization USCIS no longer issues a combined “combo card”; you receive a separate EAD and a separate Advance Parole document.
Processing times vary widely. As of early 2026, EAD processing for adjustment applicants is running roughly 6 to 8.5 months, and Advance Parole 7 months or longer. In some cases I-131 processing has stretched to nearly 20 months. Plan international travel accordingly.
Leaving the U.S. without approved Advance Parole while your I-485 is pending is treated as abandonment of the application. Even with Advance Parole, any trip carries risk: a delayed return, a consulate issue, or a change in circumstances could complicate reentry.
The H-1B to EAD Trap
Here’s where people trip. If you’re on H-1B and you start using your EAD to work, you’re generally considered to have abandoned your H-1B status. That looks harmless while the I-485 is pending. But if the I-485 is later denied for any reason, you no longer have H-1B to fall back on and would be out of status immediately. The same risk applies if you use Advance Parole to travel: returning on Advance Parole rather than your H-1B visa can terminate H-1B status.
The safer approach, especially in any case with complexity, is to keep working under H-1B and use the H-1B visa stamp for travel. Your spouse on H-4 can get their own EAD after your I-485 is filed, and that does not affect their H-4 status the same way. This is one area where a conversation with an immigration attorney pays for itself.
If Your Priority Date Isn’t Current Yet
If your priority date isn’t current, common for India-born and China-born applicants, you can’t file the I-485. During that wait, you must keep valid nonimmigrant status on your own. Your approved I-140 does give you one important benefit: H-1B holders with an approved I-140 can extend H-1B status beyond the normal six-year limit in three-year increments for as long as a visa number remains unavailable.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. FAQs for Individuals in H-1B Nonimmigrant Status
You can also change H-1B employers during this time. The new employer files a new H-1B petition, and you can begin working for them as soon as it’s properly filed. Your NIW priority date follows you regardless of any job change, because the NIW isn’t tied to an employer to begin with.
Your priority date is one of your most valuable immigration assets in a backlogged category. Because no employer filed the NIW I-140 on your behalf, there’s no employer who can withdraw it. Your approved I-140 and its priority date stay valid and can even establish priority for a future petition in a different employment-based category if your circumstances change.
Changing Jobs After You File
One of the practical advantages of the EB-2 NIW appears after you file adjustment. Because the NIW waives the job offer requirement, you have more freedom than most employment-based applicants when changing jobs. USCIS policy confirms NIW applicants are eligible for job portability and don’t need to file Form I-485 Supplement J when changing employers, since there was no specific job offer to port.11U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 5 – Job Portability after Adjustment Filing and Other AC21 Provisions
That flexibility has limits. USCIS may ask whether you’re still working in the area or field that formed the basis of your NIW. If your I-140 was approved based on contributions to biomedical research and you pivot entirely to real estate investment, USCIS could question whether the national interest justification still holds. The safest course is to stay in the same general professional field, though you’re free to change employers, work for yourself, or take a different position within that field.
Receiving Your Green Card
After I-485 approval, or after you enter the U.S. on your immigrant visa, USCIS produces your physical Permanent Resident Card. For adjustment applicants, it’s mailed to the address on file. For consular processing applicants, the immigrant visa stamp in your passport is proof of status at the border, and the card is mailed to your U.S. address after arrival. The card is valid for ten years. Permanent resident status itself doesn’t expire; the card is just the evidence, renewed before expiration on Form I-90.
Your Social Security Number
Form I-485 has a section for requesting a Social Security Number card at the same time. If you complete it, USCIS shares the necessary information with the Social Security Administration automatically, and the SSN card should arrive within about 14 days of the green card, with no visit to a Social Security office needed.12Social Security Administration. Apply for Your Social Security Number While Applying for Your Work Permit and/or Lawful Permanent Residency If you skipped that section or the card doesn’t arrive, you’ll need to visit a local Social Security office by appointment with your green card. The DS-260 has a similar SSN option for consular processing.
Ongoing Responsibilities
Permanent residents must file U.S. federal income taxes on worldwide income, regardless of where it’s earned. Males between 18 and 25 must register with the Selective Service System. If you plan to naturalize (generally after five years of permanent residence), you’ll need to maintain continuous residence and avoid extended trips abroad that could be read as abandoning resident status. The green card ends the immigration process you started with your NIW petition and begins a set of ongoing obligations that come with the status.