Depending on your eligibility status you may be required to submit an immigration petition from any of the following:

• A U.S. citizen
• A Green Card holder
• An employer
• An American family member

Once the petition has been received and approved, the applicant will be able to submit Form I-485 correctly to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Subsequently, the USCIS will forward the application to the U.S. Department of State’s National Visa Center (NVC), where it will be assigned a visa number.

U.S. citizens’ direct family members: Will automatically be assigned an application number once form is received and revised.

Non-direct relatives: Due to the limited number of Visas given out each year, non-direct relatives will have an extended waiting period of time before receiving an application number. The NVC will assign your priority date, based on the date your application was received.

Concurrent Filing is when the immigrant petition and Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, are filed at the same time and mailed together with all the required filing fees and supporting documentation to the same filing location.

Concurrent filing is allowed in the following instances:

• Self-petitioning battered spouse or child - when the abusive spouse or parent is a U.S. citizen.
• If a visa number is immediately made available due to extraordinary circumstances (see below).
• Immediate relatives of American citizens living in the USA.
• Most of the employment-based applicants and their eligible direct family members, when a visa number is immediately available (see below).
• Special immigrant juveniles if an EB-4 visa number is immediately available and USCIS has jurisdiction over the application to adjust status.
• Certain Armed Forces Members.

To correctly submit Form I- 485 a Green Card holder will first need to sponsor all non-direct family members by filing Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative on behalf of the applicant.

If the direct relatives applying reside outside of US territory, the NVC will directly assign a visa number to their application and forward it, along with the Green Card petition, to the local embassy or consulate. The latter will also be responsible for informing the applicants about the required steps to complete the application process.

Children under the age of 14

Children under the age of 14 filing Form I-485 with at least one parent, will pay a reduced fee of $365. Children under 14, filing the form without a parent, must pay a fee of $985.

Worker Application

American employers are required to file Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, on behalf of their foreign employees. You may submit Form I-485, once a visa number becomes available.

Note:Should extraordinary circumstances apply, you will automatically receive a visa number when filing Form I-140 and Form I-485 simultaneously.

Special Immigrant.

The Special Immigrant status refers to:

• Physicians.
• Juvenile court dependents.
• Religious workers.
• Widow(er)s of deceased U.S. citizens.
• A battered or abused spouse or child of a U.S. citizen or lawful Permanent Resident.
• International organization employee or family member.
• Armed forces members.
• Afghanistan or Iraq national who supported the U.S. Armed Forces as a translator.
• Iraqi national who worked for or on behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq.
• Afghan national who worked for or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan.

Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er) or Special Immigrant must be filed by any of the categories mentioned above or by the respected qualifying institution or person, on behalf of the applicant.

Note: Due to extraordinary circumstances, members of the Armed Forces may file Form I-360 and Form I-485 simultaneously. However, due to recent legal changes made by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Religious Workers are not allowed to file both forms concurrently.

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• Nationality
• Current status
• Relation to the U.S. citizen / lawful permanent resident
• Numeric limitation of the respective category
• Location and capability of the Immigration Office
• The number of applications received

There is no standard answer to this question, since each case is processed based on individual circumstances.