Immigration Lawyer Ari Sauer – The Immigration Answer Man
Memphis immigration lawyer Ari Sauer provides news and information on US immigration law.
Can I file my I-485 application before my I-130 petition is approved?
QUESTION: I am in the US is E-2 status. My husband is a Permanent Resident and he filed an I-130 petition for me last year. My priority date is available now. Can I file an I-485 while my I-130 is still pending?
THE IMMIGRATION ANSWER MAN – ARI SAUER: You can file the I-485 Application for Adjustment of Status while the I-130 Immigrant Petition is still pending (meaning it has been filed with USCIS and you have the Receipt Notice, but has not yet been approved), assuming you meet all other eligibility requirements, including that the priority date for the petition has been reached under the DOS Visa Bulletin.
Just a bit of warning, though. It appears that you are relying on the DOS Visa Bulletin’s “Dates for Filing” chart, rather than the “Final Action Dates” chart. Please note that you can only file an I-485 based on the “Dates for Filing” chart in a month where USCIS has authorized use of the “Dates for Filing” chart. Each month, a few days to a week after the DOS Visa Bulletin is posted for the following month, USCIS will issue their own statement as to whether the “Dates for Filing” chart for that month can be used for the early filing of
I-485 applications in that month. For some months, USCIS will not accept I-485 applications unless the priority date is current on the “Final Action Dates” chart of the Visa Bulletin. To check whether the USCIS allows you to use the “Dates for Filing” chart for each month, go to https://www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo.
Submit questions to Ari Sauer – The Immigration Answer Man by emailing your question to immigrationanswerman@gmail.com. Questions submitted by email will be posted without personal information unless specifically requested. Due to the volume of questions received, not all questions submitted will be answered. Only general questions can be answered on this blog. For answers to specific questions about your situation, please schedule a consultation appointment with attorney Ari Sauer. Sending in a question by email or any other means does not create an attorney-client relationship.
* This is an advertisement. Ari Sauer is an attorney with the Siskind Susser law firm. www.visalaw.com/ari. On this blog we answer questions as a service to our readers, but we cannot assume any liability related to reliance on anything herein, and responses to questions are not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship. Immigration laws and regulations are constantly changing, and the rules stated may not apply to your situation. Readers are cautioned to schedule a consultation with an immigration lawyer before acting on anything stated in this blog. This blog is not intended to substitute for a consultation with a qualified immigration law attorney. Ari Sauer is licensed to practice law through the states of Tennessee, New York, and New Jersey but is eligible to assist clients from throughout the US. Certification as an Immigration Specialist is not currently available in Tennessee, New York or New Jersey. Siskind Susser limits its practice strictly to immigration law, a Federal practice area, and we do not claim expertise in the laws of states other than where our attorneys are licensed. the opinions expressed here are those of Ari Sauer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Siskind Susser law firm.
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6 comments on “Can I file my I-485 application before my I-130 petition is approved?”
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Ari Sauer
Ari Sauer is an immigration law attorney with the Memphis office of the Siskind Susser law firm. Ari answers questions on US immigration law submitted by readers. Email Ari Sauer to submit a question. immigrationanswerman@gmail.com
Immigration Lawyer Ari Sauer - The Immigration Answer Man 
I lost my I 130 approval letter, now I want to file for I 485. Can I summit I 484 without I 130 approval letter.
If you do not have a copy of the I-130 Approval Notice, do you have a copy of the I-130 Receipt Notice? Unfortunately, if you send in the I-485 without a copy of the I-130 approval notice or at least the I-130 receipt notice, the people in USCIS’s mailroom are probably going to reject the application and send it back to you. If you have lost both your approval notice and your receipt notice and you do not have a copy of either, you can file a Form I-824 to request a duplicate copy of your approval notice. But it takes a while for USCIS to process Form I-824 requests.
Hi my husband (he is permanent resident) who sent me and my son a petition i-130. this petition was sent in May 2019 and after two weeks we received a receipt. proiority date is 24 May 2019. this petition is not yet approved. do we qualify to send the i-485? we are currently in the USA with f1 status and my son f2
You most likely can apply for the I-485 now. I would have to have a full consultation with you to be able to say for sure. But if you are both in valid F-1 and F-2 nonimmigrant status, and your permanent resident husband filed an I-130 petition for you under the F2A preference category (and if your son is not your husband’s biological son, you married your husband while your son was under 18), as long as a visa is available for your I-130 petition under the F2A visa category on the current month’s DOS Visa Bulletin (which it is for the months of December 2019 and January 2020), then you can file an I-485 for each of you, as long as you are not subject to any other grounds of inadmissibility. You do not have to wait for the I-130 to be approved to file the I-485. But please note that you can only file the I-485 while a visa is current for the petition for that month in the DOS Visa Bulletin. So if you are reading this after January 2020, make sure you check the DOS Visa Bulletin first before filing the I-485. Also, it is highly recommended that you consult with me or another experienced immigration lawyer before filing anything.
My husband is in jail we filed a i-130 petition between July 26 and august 5 and we haven’t heard from us is as yet
It can take up to a year (give or take) for USCIS to get around to adjudicating an I-130, depending on the situation. If you are already working with an immigration attorney, you should talk to them about your concerns and expected timelines. If you are not already working with an attorney, I highly recommend that you consult with an experienced immigration lawyer, as marriage-based immigration cases nab be more complicated when one of the couple is detained.