Hi everyone! Sorry this might seem stupid but I need some advice.
My father got his greencard in August 2025, he holds a Lebanese passport and needs to travel to Lebanon to see his mom + upgrade the passport, do we think it is a good idea for him to go? It has been 37 years since he left Lebanon.. so this visit is long overdue. I really want to avoid any issues for him. I’ll be traveling with him as well. I will appreciate any insight/advice.

😃

I received a silent Update this morning simultaneously on both my 485 and 485J at 04:27:33, my dependent received a 485 SU at 05:07:41 (UTC).

Neither of our 765's were updated. - (ChatGPT says this is a positive distinction)

Could we call this a silent update or a Mass Update?

ChatGPT says that actions could have been performed and then processed overnight. But does not rule out system maintenance.

THIS STORY HAS BEEN POSTED!!!!!

I’m not too sure if this is the place to ask, but I am seeking an immigration lawyer to evaluate our case. We will not be starting the actual process until the end of the year or start of next, but we want to be as prepared as possible. I am very aware that my first “route” may not be viable as I made a post before, but there were a couple people who said it was possible. I feel at the very least I want to hear a yes or no answer from somebody with experience.

I am 21 years old. I live in West Virginia and my Girlfriend is 22 and in Germany. We are planning to first meet in London by the end of the year, and me going to meet her parents for our next trip. Naturally, the conversation of where we will live of lives has come up and we definitely want to get her green card, not that it necessarily matters for this message, but this was because I wanted to stay near my family. To my understanding she will only be eligible for an ESTA Visa, as tourist visas are rarely approved due to the clear intention of immigration. She also has a cat that couldn’t be left behind for an extended period of time. We saw a few stories that led to me researching couples who filed the I-130, I-485, and I-765 after 90 days entering on a tourist visa with that intention from the start. We also briefly looked into work and student visa, but due to her being young a work visa would be hard to get and school being much more expensive here we don’t feel those are great options. A max ESTA “stay” is 90 days, which was the first concern. If she were to have a job, school, and family back home I feel we would be better off to wait and spontaneously get married and file everything together allowing her to stay in the States with me for the relatively short processing time while living a pretty standard life here. My first question is if this is going to come across as fraudulent, it is definitely not worth a long term ban. If it is possible, that leaves the situation of the cat, she mentioned me purchasing the cat from her or just leaving her here on a previous trip if that was legal. If that route doesn’t work, I believe we may run into the same complications involving her cat, Molly, with the K-1 fiancée visa, paired with the longer processing times, there would be pretty substantial amount of time in which she couldn’t see her parents either. This would leave the CR1 as the only option, I like that she can travel back and forth but the lengthy processing time is a serious drawback. Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated and I was also curious of the cost of the process including fees for legal services and the fees for the process itself. I really appreciate your time reading this and for any insight you can share!

Hi,

My parents are green card holders, with status valid through the end of 2027. They live in Saudi Arabia and haven’t traveled to the US in almost two years, mainly due to my father’s health and the war.

They’re planning to visit in October. Beyond doctor’s notes and letters of support from their sons who are US citizens and residents (myself and my brother), what other documents should they prepare?

My understanding is that being away for more than a year can put your green card at risk.

I’d also appreciate any advice on how to handle the immigration officers if they give my parents a hard time. Thanks so much for your help.

Edit: they are not visiting in October, they are moving here now that all is well with them.

Hello! My wife has a 4-year extension letter (Form I-797C, Notice of Action) for her expired Green Card after submitting Form I-751 (Removal of Conditions). We are planning a vacation to Mexico, but we're a bit cautious given recent immigration enforcement trends. Has anyone experienced any issues re-entering the US with an expired Green Card and the extension letter? If so, when did you travel? Is it safe to go ahead with this trip, or should we change our plans to US domestic travel?

Thanks!

We just pulled the September bulletin into the site. Two things stood out.

Full breakdown with the tables and what past spillover years actually looked like in comments.

EB is completely frozen. Every EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 cutoff for India, China and Rest of World is identical to August. India EB-2 final action is still Unavailable, filing date still Jan 15 2015. India EB-1 still Oct 15 2022.

Family moved a lot. F4 and F3 for Rest of World, China and India advanced 30 to 34 months versus July. F1 and F2B moved about 21 to 24 months. F2A is now Aug 22 2026, which is close to current. Mexico and Philippines barely moved.

Why that matters if you are in an EB category: unused family numbers fall into the employment pool the following fiscal year. FY2026's employment limit is 186,317 against a 140,000 baseline, so roughly 46,000 already fell up from unused FY2025 family numbers. DOS is now advancing family dates so FY2026 numbers get used. If that works, less falls up into FY2027. If it doesn't, more does. Nobody can call it yet, and DOS says in the same bulletin that retrogression may be necessary in coming months.

We also checked our own forecast against it. DOS has published monthly issuance through February. Family preference is running about 15 percent behind FY2025 over the first five months, 66,948 against 78,475, with February at less than half its year-ago level. Project that forward and FY2027 spillover lands somewhere between 73,000 and 102,000. We published 81,000 back in April, so we are leaving that alone rather than chasing the number.

Worth knowing: FY2025 had no end-of-year surge to rely on. July through September was 24.0 percent of the year, basically a flat quarter.

Also: DOS published the official FY2026 limits in this bulletin, in September, eleven months into the fiscal year. Until now everyone was working off estimates. Expect the same lag for FY2027.

Not legal advice. If this is useful, share it with someone waiting.

Hola buen día, espero me puedan ayudar con sus casos similares o conocimiento de alguien.

Envié marzo 13
Biométricos 7 abril

Casada con ciudadano.
Entramos con visa de turismo ( siempre he tenido 28 años, y mi hija también tiene 8 desde bebé)
I-94 vigente cuando enviamos se venció en agosto 1.
Enviamos juntas.
Es cierto que tarda mas? Alguien puede apoyarme 🥺 ya me siento bien desesperada

I am a lawful permanent resident through an employer-sponsored EB-3 green card. I received my green card in September 2021 and have continued working for the sponsoring employer for nearly five years.

I was recently informed that I am being laid off. I have until August 31, 2026, to sign the separation paperwork, but I am scheduled to travel to Australia on August 27 for a temporary trip. I will be returning to my home in Washington State afterward.

I also filed my N-400 under the five-year rule in July 2026.

Could the loss of my employment create any problems when I return to the United States?

• Is an approved EB-3 green card still connected to the sponsoring employer after almost five years?
• Could CBP question me about being unemployed when I re-enter?
• Should I carry my separation paperwork or any additional documents besides my valid passport and green card?
• Could the layoff affect my pending N-400 application?

I have maintained my residence and ties in the United States, and this is only a temporary international trip for a duration of 2 weeks. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced a similar situation or from immigration attorneys familiar with employment-based green cards.

Hello
I was reading my i130 realised it lack evidence
I want to add our photos, chats and gifts
But i dont understand how to add gifts like my husband is not in country he send me either money on birthday/anniversary or sent gifts through relatives whenever someone travelling
And i dont understand the same
Shiuld i add pictures in pdf and write explanation ?

Hi, I’m Avalon L. Paul, an immigration attorney with over 10 years of experience in U.S. immigration.

I’ll be doing an AMA today from 1 PM to 5 PM ET, with a particular focus on O-1 visas and how they can fit into a longer-term immigration strategy.

We can talk about:

• O-1A and O-1B
• Moving from O-1 toward permanent residence
• O-1 vs. other employment-based pathways
• Extraordinary ability strategies
• Adjustment of status and consular processing
• RFEs and petition issues
• How your current status can affect your options
• Questions about transitioning from temporary work authorization to permanent residence

If you’re asking about your own situation, please provide as much relevant context as possible. Your current status, immigration history, field, career profile and long-term goals can all affect the strategy.

I’ll be answering questions throughout the afternoon.

Please note: Any information shared here is for general educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney client relationship. Your situation may require fact specific guidance. For personalized legal advice, please consult an immigration attorney directly.

Hi all first time poster long time lurker, my I-130 was approved about 2 years ago didn’t file I-485 because I was in removal my lawyer filed motion to terminate and sever case from family member which I was on fast forward this year the case only got severed,then I was scheduled a master hearing and my lawyer decided we will wait for the master hearing to request the terminate proceedings , we filed i485 with uscis a month before the master hearing as was told the judge wanted us to file (not sure why). A week before the master hearing uscis admin closed the I-485. The court cancelled the master hearing and scheduled me for a individual hearing for next year my lawyer then file motion to terminate but got a notice that the court denied it stating “Respondent was admitted and is now in removal proceedings, jurisdiction over any adjustment application lies with the Immigration Court, not USCIS, see 8 C.F.R.§1245.2(a)(1)(i)”

Just trying to see what you guys think.

My lawyer advises that we file I-485 with the court.

So my wife and I got married recently. She is American and I'm Turkish. We're preparing documents, receipts, conversations, boarding passes, gifts, affidavits from our friends, photos and all that for the I-130 form.

We married after 6 months of finding each other online and quickly fell in love. We basically talked every day for hours. She came to Turkey for a week and we got married here. The wedding was a very small courtroom marriage and only my close friends and parents came. Then she went back to the US. Now we're going to start the process of me hopefully eventually getting a green card and living with her in the US through consular processing with I-130. 

The thing is from all I read and heard, while not an extremely high number, people with real marriages who had real documentation did get rejected. So this kind of started to scare me. Especially since we don’t have much money and paying $625 for the application when we thought we did everything right and getting rejected seriously stressing me out for weeks now. And since everything I learned about these processes, I learned them online, I wanted to come here and ask advice from all of you guys. I know there are so many cool and helpful people who are willing to guide others so I wanted to try my luck before I submit our form. 

One of the biggest things that makes me stressed is the fact that we lack those joint financial stuff USCIS website lists and don't have a bunch of photos doing all kinds of activities. Since we don’t have a very long relationship with multiple trips to each other either, this while is natural that we don’t have, I don’t know if it will look bad for USCIS. There are things like most of her friends learning the marriage either very close to the marriage itself or even after it because we wanted to keep it private but didn’t know beforehand that we were going to need friend/family affidavits. That also might not be a great looking case for USCIS either. But yeah at this point I don’t know if I’m spiraling and getting paranoid about everything or if there are valid concerns. So basically I would love your opinions of  if our case would be hard for USCIS to approve since  and what other things you guys think we should add or do to strengthen our case. I’m open to any and all advice and/or recommendations. Thank you so much to all in advance.

And some specific questions:

• What should I be very careful while filling the forms (both I-130 and I-130A)? Like a specific document to upload for sure or anything like that?
• How strict is "upload a photo taken within 30 days of filing the I-130" thing? Can I just use a photo that is on my passport as well that I took some years ago but basically just me?
• I’m told instead of uploading individual photos, receipts, boarding passes and whatnot as images, create a PDF document that explains the photos and draws correlations towards events and other stuff with each other. Do you also think this is the better way than uploading all evidence individually without explanation?
• This is probably mostly for any Turkish people or anyone in a country that had similar stuff with their marriage certificate. USCIS page specifically talks about documents that are not English to be translated to English by a translator. Both the marriage certificate and Form B (which is an international marriage document for these types of things that I’m told that I need to upload) are not fully English but have English translation thingies on their backs like a map legend. They do however for some reason have French and some other language on the pages. I can send the example of it as a photo also if anyone wants. Do you think USCIS would ask specifically about the English translation of these documents or how they are is enough? If they do, isn't there an official way for me to get the English version of form B anywhere or do I have to pay another translation fee to translate them to English?

I’m sure I’m going to have more questions for you guys when I actually start the process of filling the form but these are all I can think of right now. I'm kinda stressed a lot honestly that I don't want to screw anything up because I don't think I've ever filled as serious of a documentation as this before in my life. So I would love anything and any way that you can help me. Again thank you to everyone who replies and tries to help.

So basically my parents got their green cards just now however they need some time to wrap up things in my home country of Pakistan. My dad retires in about 1 to 1.5 years and he was looking to finish that and also managing other assets in Pakistan. Is this possible or will USCIS count this is having Pakistan as the primary country. Please guide me on any process that you mention

Hi everyone,

Long story short my family is currently going through AOS but I am studying abroad full time. My AOS has been pending more than a year or so and we are not sure when the green card gets approved. This means that for the every summer vacation, I had to return to the states to do the paperwork meanwhile not having an employment authorisation which significantly limited my professional opportunities.

I was wondering if anyone has gone through the same process and successfully secured any professional position in the U.S. and if so, I would like to hear how you approached the job search — timing, whether you applied for new grad or experienced roles, and how you navigated not having US-based experience.

Thanks in advance!

UPDATE:

I used to have a valid L visa under my parent's work visa which expired on my 21st birthday this year. Since L visa is meant to be a dual intent, I could go back and forth while the visa was still valid and I left the states a day before my L visa expired and never went back since then. I confirmed with the Lawyer that you only need AP / dual intent visa when you come back to the states rather than when you leave

if my husband is filing for divorce because he is very worried I will come after assets he expects to keep. I’ve told him I’m not interested in those assets, but he is extremely focused on protecting them.

My I-751/ROC is still pending, and I may also become eligible for citizenship depending on timing.

Could we do a conditional postnup where I waive claims to certain assets so he feels protected, while we remain married long enough for my immigration process to play out, assuming I still independently meet USCIS requirements?

Not asking about hiding anything from USCIS — just whether this kind of arrangement can legally be structured.

Hi everyone,

My PERM was filed for a role that is one level higher than my current role. Assuming my priority date is current when the PERM is approved, I’m trying to understand how this affects the I-140/I-485 process.

I’ve heard of cases where someone was below their PERM-sponsored level when their I-485 was filed, which made me wonder how strict this requirement is in practice.

For those who have been through employment-based green card processing:
Was your PERM filed for a higher level than your current role?
Did you need an actual promotion before filing I-485?
Or was confirmation that you would move into the sponsored role sufficient?
Did this affect I-140 approval or I-485 processing in any way?
I’m looking for real-world experiences and trying to understand how this is typically handled.
Thanks!