Family classification
I-485 Adjustment of Status
Adjustment of status packets fail on documentation completeness rather than legal argument. The recurring issues are an expired or incorrectly completed medical examination, an unbroken status history that is not actually unbroken on the exhibits, and an affidavit of support whose income evidence does not reach the required threshold for the household size claimed.
Governing standard
Admissibility, lawful status continuity and an immediately available visa number
8 CFR 245; INA 245(a) and 245(k)
- Denial rate after RFE
- 9.2%
- Median processing
- 226 days
- Form
- I-485
- Initial RFE rate
- 16.4%
- Median exhibit pages
- 130
- Manual assembly
- 7 hrs
- On Docket Build
- 20 min
Statutory criteria
What the record has to establish.
Each element below is a mapped criterion in the Docket Build criteria pack, with its citation and the evidence types that satisfy it.
Immediately available visa number
INA 245(a)(3)
- Priority date evidence
- Visa Bulletin analysis at filing
Lawful admission and status maintenance
INA 245(c)
- I-94 history
- Approval notices
- Employment authorisation record
Admissibility
INA 212(a)
- Form I-693 medical
- Police and court records where applicable
- Waiver filings if needed
Public charge sufficiency
INA 212(a)(4)
- Form I-864 with tax transcripts and income evidence
Failure modes
What actually draws a request on a I-485.
Compiled from the request language our customers record on their own matters and from published AAO decisions in this classification.
Full RFE trends hub- Medical examination outside its validity window at adjudication
- Status gap visible in the I-94 history that the cover letter does not address
- I-864 income below the threshold for the household size stated
- Arrest disclosed on the form with no certified disposition exhibit
Document checklist
What a complete filing carries.
Full printable checklist →Eligibility basis
Approved or concurrently filed I-130 / I-140
With receipt or approval notice
Priority date and Visa Bulletin analysis
Establishing availability at the filing date
Status and identity
Complete I-94 history
Every entry and exit, retrieved from CBP
All prior approval notices
Chronological, with no gaps in status
Passport pages with visas and stamps
Covering the full period of US presence
Birth certificate with certified translation
Or secondary evidence with a non-availability certificate
Admissibility
Form I-693 sealed medical examination
Signed by a civil surgeon; check current validity rules
Court and police dispositionswhere applicable
Certified copies for every arrest or citation
Affidavit of support
Form I-864
Household size and income threshold verified
Tax transcripts
Most recent year, or three years where income is marginal
Employment verification and pay records
Current income evidence
Joint sponsor packagewhere applicable
Where the primary sponsor's income is insufficient
Also family
Related classifications.
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