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If you’re a foreign national who is planning to apply for a U.S. green card (lawful permanent U.S. residence), you might have an important choice to make: whether to use the overseas application process known as “consular processing” or the U.S.-based application process known as “adjustment of status.” Then again, if you’re currently living overseas, you might have no choice but to apply via consular processing. In either case, you’ll want to know what steps are involved and the advantages and disadvantages of this application procedure.

This article will discuss:

  • the steps to consular processing (an overview, with time estimates)
  • who is eligible for consular processing
  • risks to consular processing
  • who can adjust status in the United States instead of going abroad for consular processing
  • why some people might choose consular processing even if allowed to adjust status, and
  • typical costs of consular processing.

In This Article

Who Is Eligible for Consular Processing?

As a baseline matter, consular processing for an immigrant visa is available only to people who qualify for such a visa in the first place. (By way of background, an "immigrant visa" is simply one that comes with permanent U.S. residence. Its recipients will, after arriving in the United States, receive a green card. Their permitted stay doesn’t expire, unlike that of people with nonimmigrant visas; though they’ll have to apply to replace the actual green card once every 10 years.)

The main eligibility categories for an immigrant visa are through:

  • family (see Green Card Through a U.S. Family Member: Who Qualifies?)
  • employment or professional skills (see articles about Employment-Based Green Card Options), and
  • the almost-annual diversity visa lottery, though it didn't happen in 2025 and there's no word on whether it will resume in 2026 (see articles about Diversity Visa Lottery Green Cards).

Assuming the eligibility requirements are met, consular processing is basically the default immigrant visa application process. The U.S. government assumes that almost everyone will use it, except for a few people who are in the United States and allowed to use the “adjustment of status” (AOS) procedure instead. (Adjustment of status involves submitting all forms to USCIS, obtaining a medical exam from a U.S.-based doctor, having fingerprints taken and checked against U.S. security and FBI databases, and finally attending an interview at a USCIS office.)

Consular processing is definitely the expected and normally required procedure for people living overseas. And even people who are in the United States but who don’t qualify to use the adjustment of status procedure might need to travel home to attend the consular interview and finish their processing there.

The hurdle with adjustment of status is that it’s only open to people who are not only living in the United States, but ordinarily who entered the country lawfully, hold a valid immigration status (perhaps they're here as a foreign worker or student, for instance), and whose circumstances have changed such that they’d now like to adjust status. Exceptions do exist to this rule. For example, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who entered the country lawfully (even if they eventually overstayed) rather than having entered illegally can normally adjust status. See Who Can Apply for a Green Card Through Adjustment of Status and When Adjustment of Status Is Possible for the Immigrant Spouse of a U.S. Citizen.

But there’s a huge caveat to the above guidance. It’s nearly impossible to game the system and make oneself eligible to use the adjustment procedure by traveling to the United States on, say, a visitor (B-2) or other nonimmigrant visa or using the Visa Waiver Program (VWP or “ESTA”) and then applying to adjust status not long after arrival. The reason is that you must, upon obtaining the temporary (nonimmigrant) visa or entering the United States, convince U.S. officials that you intend to stay in the United States only for a short period, per the terms of your visa or I-94. If you turn around and surprise the U.S. government with an application for a green card, you will practically be announcing that you misused the nonimmigrant visa or VWP and committed fraud. That will make you ineligible for the green card as well as for most other immigration benefits, now and in the future. (See How Past Immigration or Criminal Fraud Might Lead to Future U.S. Visa Denial.)

The importance of this issue cannot be overstated. Too many people have thought they’re being clever, using their existing visa to enter the United States and attempt to adjust status, only to find themselves barred from the country entirely as a result. See Risks of Entering the U.S. as a Tourist, Then Applying for Marriage-Based Green Card.

Timeline and Overview of Consular Processing Steps

Here is the usual set of steps when a foreign national applies for a U.S. immigrant visa via consular processing. How long each of the below steps will take depends on which visa category the immigrant is in, where they’re currently living, and how backlogged the relevant U.S. government offices are. (Backlogs and delays are frustratingly inevitable.)

Nevertheless, we’ll do our best to give a sense of timing here. Also see How Worried Should You Be If Your Immigration Case Is Seriously Delayed?.

  • Step 1: Someone must ordinarily start the process by filing a visa petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In most cases, it’s the U.S. petitioner/sponsor who does this, not the immigrant. The petitioner is most likely to be a U.S. employer (which would petition using Form I-140, ordinarily following a request for PERM Labor Certification) or a U.S. citizen or permanent resident family member (who’d petition using Form I-130). A few types of highly sought after professionals can actually self-petition, with no need for a U.S. sponsor. And diversity visa applicants don't need a sponsor; their registration for the lottery is what can potentially start things off.
  • Step 2: In cases where a petitioner starts the process, USCIS must approve the petition and send notification to the U.S. petitioner (if any) or the intending immigrant. For some, this approval can take several months or even years: Check the averages in your category on the USCIS Processing Times page. The approval notice will include the foreign national’s “Priority Date” (if any), which represents their place on a waiting list if they’re being petitioned in a category that has annual restrictions on the number of allotted visas.
  • Step 3: USCIS transfers the case to the National Visa Center (NVC). This is an intermediary connected to the U.S. Department of State (DOS). Its main role is to ensure that the immigration file is complete and all fees are paid before it forwards the case to the appropriate U.S. consulate. If a visa is immediately available in the applicant's category, this should happen with weeks. If the foreign national has a Priority Date, the NVC will hold the case until it is within about 6 to 12 months of being current. Some categories of both employment-based and family-based visas face such yearly restrictions, with the result that applicants in those categories can wait anywhere from a few months to 25 years for a visa to become available. (To better understand this, see How Long Is the Wait for an Immigrant's Priority Date to Become Current?.) "Immediate relatives" of U.S. citizens are a notable exception; unlimited numbers of visas are available to them. Diversity visa applicants receive a Priority Date, though this waiting list moves fairly quickly. (See How to Read the Diversity Visa Lottery Cutoff Numbers on the DOS Visa Bulletin.)
  • Step 4: The NVC sends the immigrant a welcome letter at the same time it forwards the case to the U.S. consulate. Intending immigrants who are “immediate relatives” or to whom a visa is otherwise immediately available will receive this welcome letter shortly after the NVC gets the file from USCIS, while those with Priority Dates will wait much longer. The welcome letter contains fee invoices, a case number, and the invoice number.
  • Step 5: The immigrant submits application materials and fees online through the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC). Taking care to submit everything that's required will help keep things running smoothly at this point. On the CEAC site, applicants can choose someone to receive communications from the NVC about the case (many choose the U.S. petitioner) by filling out DS-261, Online Choice of Address and Agent. It also makes sense to sign up to receive email notifications from the NVC. Each immigrating family member will need to pay visa application fees (see the latest State Department amounts). The petitioner in a family-visa case will also (with few exceptions) need to pay a $120 affidavit of support fee (for review of Form I-864).
  • Step 6: Submit Form DS-260. After processing the fee payments, the NVC will direct the applicant to the submission portal for Form DS-260, the online immigrant visa application. (Here are detailed instructions for submitting this.) Each person immigrating with the primary applicant must submit their own DS-260. When these have been properly filed, the applicant will receive a confirmation page, which must be printed out and later taken to the U.S. consulate for the visa interview.
  • Step 7: Submit other documents to the NVC. Each applicant must next submit supporting civil documents, police clearance certificates (depending on the country), and other documents. This is done electronically. All foreign-language documents must be translated into English. It often takes the NVC months to review these materials; check the State Department’s NVC Processing Timeframes web page for current averages.
  • Step 8: Interview date scheduled. After the NVC is satisfied that the case is “documentarily complete” and all fees have been paid, it will transfer the visa file to the appropriate U.S. consulate or embassy and schedule an interview or give instructions for arranging it. This will normally be at a consulate in the immigrant’s country of origin. (U.S. embassies and consulates outside the immigrant's home country will normally refuse to accept an application unless there's a compelling reason why the person is unable to apply at home, for example, because the United States has no diplomatic relationship with the government in question.) To monitor the speed at which your home-country consulate is proceeding, check out the DOS’s Immigrant Visa (IV) Scheduling Status Tool. Expect this step to take longer than you'd like, especially because the DOS laid off hundreds of consular foreign service officers in 2025, further worsening the typical wait times.
  • Step 9: Medical exam and photos. Soon before the interview, all applicants must attend a medical examination with an authorized physician. And, they must have photos taken. The consulate will send the necessary forms to fill out and instructions on where to have the exam and photos done. (See What the Medical Exam for a U.S. Green Card Involves and the DOS web page Prepare for the Interview.)
  • Step 10: Attend consular interview. Each consulate sets its own rules about things like what time to arrive and who is permitted to accompany the primary immigrant to the interview. See The Day of Your Consular Interview for more on what to expect. The immigrant(s) will have to bring various documents, such as a valid passport, original police clearance certificates, and originals of birth and marriage certificates. (The exact document requirements depend on what category you’re applying under.) At the interview, a consular officer will review these documents and talk with you. If everything is in order, you’ll be approved for an immigrant visa, and your passport will be stamped accordingly.
  • Step 11: Enter the United States. You'll need to use your immigrant visa within six months of its issuance to enter the United States and claim your permanent resident status. The actual green card will be sent to you by mail, usually weeks or months later, assuming you have paid the Immigrant Fee to USCIS.

For more information on all these steps, see What Happens Between I-130 Approval and Consular Interview.

What Are the Risks to Consular Processing?

To state the obvious, anyone who applies for a visa through a U.S. consulate faces the risk of being denied. It’s a process that can seem impersonal, with documents submitted to a faceless bureaucracy, and few opportunities to ask questions and receive a prompt answer. Changes in government policy can impact it, too. For instance, Trump-era directives have instructed consular officers to find more applicants inadmissible under public charge grounds, with heightened scrutiny of those who are elderly, unemployed, or have potentially expensive medical conditions.

No Appeal Rights After Consular Denial

A particular issue is that consular denials cannot be appealed. (It’s sometimes possible to start the entire process over again and receive an eventual approval, however, depending on the grounds for the earlier denial.)

Possible Bars to Future U.S. Visas After Denial

The exact reason for the consulate to deny an immigrant visa can have implications for the foreign national’s ability to visit the United States in the future, or even to return to the United States after leaving it for what was supposed to be a short trip to collect the visa.

If, for example, the person was found to be inadmissible for the next 10 years because of having spent 365 days or more in the United States unlawfully (after an illegal entry or visa overstay, most likely), that finding will follow them in any future visa applications until the 10 years is over and possibly beyond. See Consequences of Unlawful Presence in the U.S.—3– and 10-Year Time Bars. (Fortunately, some people can avoid this particular ground of inadmissibility by applying for a provisional waiver before they depart the United States for their consular interview.)

Possible Long Holds for Security Checks

What's called "administrative processing" or "Section 221(g) holds" can add months or years to someone's consular processing. It's an added layer of scrutiny that gets triggered by, for example:

  • the applicant's country of origin (being from a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" guarantees a 221(g) hold)
  • other ties to a country considered to present a high security risk, such as past residence there
  • a name match in a government watchlist database
  • concerning posts on social media, and
  • work history in a scientific, technical, or research field flagged as having security implications.

A 221(g) hold will show up as "Refused" in the CEAC system, though this doesn't mean an actual visa denial. In most cases, all the applicant can do is submit any requested follow-up documents or information and then wait, from weeks to a year or more. Consulting a lawyer could be helpful in this situation.

Impact of Travel Bans and Processing Pauses

At times, the U.S. government will ban or suspend all or most travel from certain regions of the world.

In June of 2025, for instance, Trump signed a proclamation restricting immigrant entry for nationals of 19 countries: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen.

Then in December of 2025, Trump signed a proclamation extending that existing travel ban and adding other countries to the list, including Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; and imposing full restrictions and entry limitations on people holding Palestinian-Authority-issued travel documents.

There are exceptions and carveouts to the above, so don't give up on an immigrant visa application without researching the matter further. A particularly notable exception is made for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, who can continue with their visa processing.

But there's another hurdle to know about: The DOS announced on January 14, 2026 that it would indefinitely pause all immigrant visa issuances for nationals of 75 countries deemed to be at "high risk" of receiving public benefits in the United States. In theory this is to give the DOS time to review its vetting procedures, but so far the pause hasn't been lifted.

For all of the above reasons, people who can adjust status in the United States often prefer to do so. Though nationals of the countries deemed high risk will face extra vetting, they'll at least be with U.S.-based family while they wait for a decision. But again, not everyone has the choice of adjusting status.

Who Might Choose Consular Processing Over AOS?

For applicants with a straightforward case and who do not come from a travel banned country, consular processing might actually be a beneficial choice, even if they could have opted to adjust status. Depending on which USCIS office serves the part of the United States in which they live, consular processing might be faster. And perhaps they've been wanting to take a trip home anyway, and are worried that if they apply to adjust status, they'll be abroad when an important appointment comes up.

Still, because of the inherent risks, this decision is best made after consulting an attorney.

How Much Does Consular Processing Cost?

Various fees and expenses must be paid at almost every step of the application process, whether for application review, a medical exam, photos, and so on. And that’s not to mention associated costs, like travel and hotel. For a full list and average amounts, see How Much It Costs to Get a Green Card Through Consular Processing. (And bear in mind that adjusting status costs a lot, as well. The cost comparison depends on the type of case and where you live.)

For More Help

This article provides an overview of the complicated application procedures involved in immigrating to the United States via an overseas U.S. embassy or consulate. Nolo books can provide further help, with instructions specific to the various types of visas and green cards: for example, see U.S. Immigration Made Easy, by Ilona Bray.

Hiring an attorney can also be worth the cost, as the attorney is familiar with the arcane application procedures and bureaucratic quirks, and can spot issues in your case, strategize the fastest and smoothest way to apply, prepare the paperwork, and steward the case to its conclusion. Learn How to Find a Good Immigration Lawyer For Your Case.