Methods immigration in United States

Number of Immigration Visa in the USA
You must have an immigrant visa number available from the State Department if you are a Family- or Employment-based applicant. There are some categories of immigrants which have exempts from numerical limitations, for example - immediate relatives of United States citizens.
Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are parents, spouses, and unmarried children under 21. (For instance, you can apply to adjust to permanent resident status at the same time that your U.S. citizen daughter files an application for you to become an immigrant.)
Other categories of persons which are released from the procedure of getting visa number are immigrant juvenile and special immigrant military petitions. Unmarried children over 21 years of age of a US Citizen, brother or sister of a US Citizen the spouse or children of lawful permanent residents need to receive the visa numbers, which are limited by law every year.

Such categories can receive the visa number from State Department in some years after the approval their petition USCIS.

You have got on the territory of the USA, while you were transit to other country, without obtaining of the visa of the USA.

You have got on the territory of the USA while you were nonimmigrant crewman.

You were not admitted or paroled into the United States after being inspected by a U.S. Immigration inspector.

You worked in the United States without the permission of USCIS, or you were not legally in the country, except for a technical error or an error of the human factor.

These rules do not concern you if:

You are the immediate relative of U.S. citizen (parent, spouse, or not married child under 21 years old).

You belong to one of the certain professional category in the field of medicine, international organization employees and family members.

You are a exchange visitor who must comply with the two-year foreign residence requirement, and you have not met or been granted a waiver for this requirement.

You have an A (diplomatic status), E (treaty trader or investor), or G (representative to the international organization) nonimmigration status, or have an occupation that would allow you have this status. If you are foreign tourist A or G, you should submit the USCIS Form.

You were admitted to Guam as a visitor under the Guam Visa Waiver Program. This rule does not concern you if you are an immediate relative of the American citizen (the parent, the spouse, or not married child to 21 years).

You have already received the status of the conditional permanent resident.

You have obtained the permition for entrance the US under visa K-1 (fiancé) or K-2 (child of a fiancé) and your parent has not concluded marriage with the American citizen who has submitted the petition for you.

Consular Processing or Adjusting Status

There are two ways of obtaining Lawful Permanent Status for a person, who is approved for immigration. The first is called Consular Processing, another one is Adjusting status. As the name implies, in consular processing the person appeals his immigrant visa in his own country at the US consulate. Adjusting status is a process, when the person appeals for changing his immigrant status in the territory of the US. The applicant makes decision about desirable way of obtaining LPS in the very beginning of making petitions.

Deciding whether to pursue consular processing or adjusting status can be a difficult choice. The main advantage of consular processing is speed. To compare: consular processing takes 6-8 month, adjusting status takes 1-3 years, depending on different USCIS offices around the US.

Adjusting status has own advantages. At first, processing can take place without traveling abroad. Additionally, applicant can work during all these years. Processing in the US means, that potential bars on reentry can be avoided.

Is it possible to path BOTH - consular processing and adjusting status in the same time? The question is controversial. There is no interdiction, but USCIS takes the position, that if it learns that applicant pursue both (consular processing and adjusting status) at the same time means, that adjusting application is abandoned. To avoid this problem you should start with consular processing and then continue with adjusting status.

The potential permanent resident makes petition about adjustment status with the USCIS within the US. The applicant must gather the documents: adjustment form, results of the medical examination, an affidavit of support and evidences of any family relationships (in family cases), evidence of the approval for immigration and a copy of the applicant’s passport must be submitted.

If the applicant wishes to leave the territory of the US to work or travel during the processing of adjustment status, additional forms must be completed in the USCIS office and in some cases he has to renews his documents every year.

The law provides that any adjustment applicant may be interviewed, indeed all marriage cases are interviewed, but are less frequent in other family relationships. Interviews are quite rare in employment-based cases.

If petition is approved, the physical green card will be ready in some month. If the approval follows an interview, the USCIS will stamp the applicant’s passport with an indication that they are a US permanent resident (LPR). If there is no interview, the applicant will receive a notice that the application has been approved, which they can take to a local USCIS office and obtain the stamp. A few months later, they will receive the green card.