How to fill out the Form I-485 for an Adjustment of Status in the United States?

00:01 We don’t give legal advice but I felt it would be nice to show how to complete a form, what it looks like. It’s all done for general information only and when you have a case like an adjustment of status based on family, on deployment, those are really complicated things and you should definitely work with an attorney

00:35 We will now begin with form I-45, and this form is extremely important that you have all of your information correct because this is the form that the USCIS will use in order to prepare your green card.

02:07 Information about you continues with the country of birth and country citizenship. The alien number again, is only if you’ve been in the U.S. before. So if you entered the U.S. through crossing the border or an airport and you were admitted at a port of entry, which you have to have been admitted at a port of entry in order to file for adjustment of status, you will click on this that you were inspected.

03:56 Some people have entered a with an advanced parole or a humanitarian parole. And if that’s your case, then you want to click on this one. And if you came into the United States without admission or parole, you want to click on this one.

05:03 They want to know the name as it appears on your I-94. Usually it is almost the same as it appears on your passport

05:46 Are you applying for adjustment based on immigration nationality act, section 245-I? So some people who have petitions that were filed prior to April 30th of 2001and entered unlawfully without a visa would mark yes here. And those people would have to complete another form as well, but we’re just focusing on the marriage case right now so you probably entered legally, you’re going to answer no

06:31 This section is usually not for marriage cases because it has to do with petitions that have already been filed for other people through an employer or through a relative it’s really important for you to be very honest and very clear.

08:06 It wants you to provide your most recent address outside the U.S. where you lived more than one year. That would also match the information that you put on your I-130. How many times have you been married before? So and this includes annulled marriages, so you want to put down how many times you’ve been married before.

09:53 Information about prior marriages, this is where you put all your prior marriages, where you get married. You do need to have this information, so hopefully you remember it or have it with you

11:02 Read this carefully. It’s telling you how many children you need to enter in here, whether they’re married or unmarried, living with you or elsewhere. You want to include any missing children and other children that were born outside of your marriage.

12:32 some of the questions are very intricate and you have to be very careful how you answer these. So let’s start with the first one. Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any organization, association fund, foundation, party, club society or similar group in the United States or in any other location in the world, including any military service. You want to put that information here because this is needed for your background check. So it’s very important that you complete this as thoroughly as possible.

13:30 It’s asking if you’ve ever been denied admission to the United States. So if you’ve ever tried to enter the U.S. and they said no, you can’t come in or they canceled your visa or anything like that happened.

14:32 You’d want to answer. Yes. Have you ever been denied a visa to the United States? If you applied for your B-1, B-2 visa and it was denied or you’re applying for an F-1 visa and it was denied and then later you apply for another visa and it was approved, you still have to answer yes that you’ve been denied a visa here.

15:22 It’s asking have you ever been granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge, but failed to depart within the allotted time? So this is very important. Some people forget and they think that because they entered with a visa, but got voluntary departure that they’re still okay to file. If you got voluntary departure and didn’t leave, you may not be able to do adjustment of status

16:27 They asked have you ever been granted a waiver or has the Department of State issued a favorable waiver recommendation letter for you? So if you’ve had a waiver for say a non immigrant visa, then you definitely want to enter that there.

17:00 We go up to the next questions. These all have to do with criminal acts and violations and read this very carefully because if you don’t read them carefully, you might not answer it correctly because some people will not see the words clearly. So I would suggest that you read these questions twice

18:59 Have you ever violated or attempted or conspired to violate any controlled substance law or regulation? And some people have had a, what they call a misdemeanor violation for marijuana and there is a way, there is a one time waiver for that, but only for one violation.

19:52 So you should be able to answer no to all of these questions and including the questions on security. And these have to do with espionage and other activity and trying to overthrow the U.S. government and I’m sure no one completing this form would ever try and do that but if you have you answer truthfully

21:41 If you used an emergency medical that is not considered public assistance. So mark no on that one and you definitely want to mark no on are likely to receive public assistance because that is one of the reasons that they have you complete an affidavit of support is to make sure that you do not become a public charge.

24:04 Accommodations for individuals with disabilities and other impairments, If you are disabled and you need assistance and you’re going to complete these boxes here. So pay attention to those.

25:08 ] And then go ahead and sign where it says applicant signature. If you did use an interpreter, then you have to have the interpreters contact information and the interpreter will also need to sign this form. And if someone helped you to prepare the form, even if it was your spouse, then the spouse, the U.S. petitioners spouse will enter his information in here and complete and sign the form. If it was a U.S. citizen they will click on I am not an attorney and complete…read the certification, sign it and your pretty much done with the form. This is the last page part 14 where you would put any additional information that you could not fit on the form in previous pages. So you want to make sure you enter the page number, the part number and the item number that you’re discussing in these boxes. And we’re done with form I-485

26:10 I hope you enjoyed watching this video. It gives you an idea how to fill the form. If you have any more questions, just post them in the comments below and let me know what other videos you want to see. And thanks for your support. We’ll see you at our next video.

If you have any questions email Jacob at jacob@h1b.biz.