U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published a revised version of Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. Form I-485 and the form instructions have been updated to reduce complexity.
The revised version of the form is easy to complete. Updated form instructions will help applicants to understand the form questions and complete the form accurately. Likewise, the instructions are specific to the applicants’ different situations. Apart from helping the applicants to easily complete the form, the new update will also help USCIS officers to efficiently adjudicate adjustment of status applications.
Along with Form I-485, USCIS has revised Form I-485 Supplement A and Form I-485 Supplement J. Updated instructions for these forms will help applicants completing these forms to correctly file and submit supporting documents.
USCIS will accept the older edition of the I-485 application and Supplements A and J dated 01/17/17 and the new edition dated 06/26/17, until August 25, 2017, after which only the new edition of the forms will be accepted.
The new Form I-485 includes questions about the applicant’s biographic information. So the applicants need not complete Form G-325A, Biographic Information, separately. The new form has the list of 27 immigrant categories which will help applicants to easily identify the category under which they are applying for adjustment of status. The additional admissibility related questions in the updated Form I-485 will help USCIS officers to better assess the eligibility of the applicant. The overall look and feel of the form have been changed, which makes the form user-friendly for applicants as well as the adjudicating USCIS officers.
Adjustment of status is a process that is meant for the beneficiaries of immigrant petitions already living in the U.S. For example, if Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, is filed for the husband or wife of a U.S. citizen and if the beneficiary of the petition is in the U.S. in a valid non-immigrant status, he or she can file Form I-485 to adjust status to that of a legal resident. This also applies to beneficiaries of immigrant petitions in the U.S. for whom immigrant visa numbers are available.
