Most foreign nationals who are eligible to apply for adjustment of status may also choose to attend a green card interview at the U.S. Embassy in their home country instead of filing an I-485 application. This is commonly referred to as consular processing or immigrant visa processing (IVP) abroad. Once the immigrant petition (e.g. I-140 or I-130) is approved, USCIS forwards the file to the National Visa Center (NVC), which coordinates the collection of documents and schedules an in-person interview at the U.S. embassy. Immigrant visa interviews are generally scheduled approximately 4-6 months after the approval of the immigrant petition as long as immigrant visas are available. However, if the preference category for the immigrant visa petition is not current, NVC will hold the process and resume only once the applicant’s priority date becomes current.
As mentioned above, the approval of immigrant visa petition does not grant the applicant any authorization to legally stay and work in the United States. Therefore, IVP applicants who are currently in the country must continue to maintain their underlying nonimmigrant status (e.g., H-1B/H-4 or O-1/O-3 or F-1/F-2) during their stay in the United States.
After the immigrant visa interview, a temporary immigrant visa will be issued and stamped in the applicant’s passport. The visa is typically valid for six months, within which the applicant must enter the United States as permanent resident.
