A green card — formally, lawful permanent resident (LPR) status — is the right to live and work in the United States permanently. It is the step before U.S. citizenship and the goal of most immigration journeys, reached through one of four main doors: family, employment, humanitarian protection, or the diversity visa lottery. The rules differ sharply by category, and in 2025–2026 the process itself has been tightening — new fees, longer queues, and a major policy shift that makes getting a green card from inside the United States harder than it has been in decades.
Status as of July 11, 2026. On May 21, 2026, USCIS issued a policy memorandum (PM-602-0199) declaring adjustment of status — the in-country green card process — "extraordinary relief" to be granted only as a matter of discretion, and signaling that applying from abroad through a consulate should be the default route; applicants are already receiving requests for evidence asking why they deserve a favorable exercise of discretion. Separately, a processing pause covering applicants from 40 countries (green cards included) was ruled unlawful by a federal court on June 5, but the government has appealed and cases are moving slowly. Fees remain at the levels set in 2024 — $1,440 for Form I-485 — and adjustment applications filed in immigration court now carry an H.R. 1 surcharge indexed for inflation, bringing the court-filed total to roughly $2,980 as of mid-2026.
The four main paths to a green card
Family — the largest channel: U.S. citizens can petition for spouses, parents, children, and siblings; permanent residents for spouses and unmarried children. Spouses and unmarried children under 21 of U.S. citizens, and parents of citizens aged 21 or older ("immediate relatives"), face no annual quota; everyone else waits in preference-category lines that can run years to decades. Employment — through a sponsoring employer (usually via the PERM labor certification and the EB-1/EB-2/EB-3 categories) or self-petitioned routes such as EB-2 NIW for work in the national interest. Humanitarian — asylees may apply after one year of physical presence following the grant of asylum, while refugees are expected to file after their first year in the U.S.; other routes include VAWA, U and T visas, and SIJS. Diversity visa lottery — up to 55,000 green cards a year drawn at random among nationals of low-immigration countries. Each path has its own guide in this section.
Two routes to the same card: inside or outside the U.S.
Whatever the category, the final step happens one of two ways. Adjustment of status — Form I-485 filed with USCIS, available to applicants who are physically in the United States and meet the requirements of their immigrant category, including manner of entry and the bars of INA §245. Consular processing — an immigrant visa interview at a U.S. consulate abroad, run through the National Visa Center. The May 2026 memorandum reshapes this choice: USCIS now instructs officers to weigh every applicant's history in a "totality of the circumstances" review, frames consular processing as the ordinary route — with people on single-intent visas like F-1 or B-1/B-2 most exposed — and stresses that statutory eligibility by itself does not guarantee approval. The memo does not change who is legally eligible to file, and holders of dual-intent visas (H-1B, L-1) are less exposed, but denials on purely discretionary grounds are now an explicit possibility, and the practical risk calculus of filing I-485 has changed. How this policy is applied — and whether it survives court challenges — is one of the biggest open questions of 2026.
Priority dates and the Visa Bulletin
Most categories are capped by annual quotas and per-country limits, so a petition's place in line is everything. That place is the priority date — generally the day the petition was filed — and the State Department's monthly Visa Bulletin shows which dates are "current," meaning a green card number is available. For applicants from high-demand countries (India and China in employment categories, Mexico and the Philippines in family ones), the gap between filing and a current date can span many years. Toward the end of each fiscal year, categories routinely slow down or retrogress as the year's numbers run out — the summer 2026 bulletins show exactly that pattern. How to read the bulletin is covered in a separate guide in this section.
What it costs
The core government fees in 2026: Form I-130 (family petition) — $675 on paper or $625 online; Form I-485 (adjustment of status) — $1,440 per applicant, including children; consular applicants pay State Department visa fees plus the USCIS immigrant fee for card production instead. Under H.R. 1, an adjustment application filed with the immigration court carries an additional surcharge, indexed annually for inflation — as of mid-2026 the court-filed total runs to roughly $2,980, with the current amount published in the EOIR fee schedule. Fee waivers for standard family- and employment-based applicants are essentially unavailable. Fees change — the authoritative list is USCIS Form G-1055, worth checking before any filing.
Living with a green card: conditions, renewal, losing it
A green card granted through a marriage younger than two years (and through EB-5 investment) comes as conditional residence valid for two years; the holder must file to remove conditions (Form I-751 for marriage cases) in the 90-day window before it expires. Regular cards are valid ten years and renew on Form I-90 — renewal is about the document, not the status, which does not expire. What can end the status: abandonment — absences approaching or exceeding a year without a re-entry permit invite an abandonment challenge at return, while trips over six months separately break the continuous residence needed for future naturalization — certain criminal convictions, and removal proceedings; status continues unless it is abandoned, rescinded, surrendered, or terminated by a final removal order. Permanent residents can petition for close family, must file U.S. tax returns as residents, and — for men 18–25 — register with Selective Service. After five years (three if married to a U.S. citizen), a green card holder can apply for naturalization.
How long does it take to get a green card?
Anywhere from under a year to several decades — the category and country of birth decide. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens with clean cases have historically moved in roughly 12–24 months; family preference and backlogged employment categories wait for a current priority date first, which for some India-born employment applicants means decades. On top of the queue, 2026 has added processing slowdowns: the 40-country pause litigation and heightened discretionary review are both stretching timelines.
How much does a green card cost in 2026?
Government fees for a typical family case run from about $1,300 (petition plus consular fees) to about $2,100 (petition plus in-country adjustment), per person, before medical exams and any legal help. Court-filed adjustments run to roughly $2,980 in total under H.R. 1's indexed surcharge. The current amounts are always in USCIS Form G-1055 and the EOIR fee schedule.
What is a priority date and when is it "current"?
The priority date is the filing date of the underlying petition — the applicant's place in the visa queue. It is "current" when the monthly Visa Bulletin shows a cutoff date later than the applicant's date (or the category shows "C"), meaning a visa number is available and the final application can move. Categories without quotas — immediate relatives of U.S. citizens — skip this wait entirely.
Can I stay in the U.S. while my green card application is pending?
A properly filed adjustment application (I-485) generally allows the person to remain while it is decided, and to request a work permit and travel document for the interim. But the choice carries more weight in 2026: approval has always required both eligibility and a favorable exercise of discretion, and the May policy directs officers to scrutinize that discretionary side far more closely — while leaving the country without advance parole still abandons the application. People weighing adjustment against consular processing in 2026 typically run that analysis with a licensed attorney.
Does a green card expire?
The card expires — ten years for regular cards, two for conditional ones — but permanent resident status itself does not. A regular card renews on Form I-90; a conditional card cannot be renewed and requires removing conditions instead. Status is lost not by an expired card but by abandonment, removal, or formal surrender.
Sources we track: USCIS, DHS, EOIR, the Federal Register, and federal courts.