PopularImmigration Track Index
Which immigration guide do I need? A 60-second decision tree pointing you to the right deep-dive guide.
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Ten guides covering the cases Imigrar actually works on, written to be read here on the page. No download, no email required, no gate.
Each guide explains what a filing is for, who it applies to, the order the steps happen in, the documents to start gathering, and the mistake that hurts people most on that path. Each one links the official USCIS, U.S. Department of State or EOIR page it was written from, so you can check every statement against the government source.
What they are not: a substitute for advice about your own case, a list of fees, or a promise about timing. Your own facts change which path is even available to you.
Plain-language PDFs on the paths we handle. Tell us where to send one and it arrives by email.
PopularWhich immigration guide do I need? A 60-second decision tree pointing you to the right deep-dive guide.
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Start here. A clear overview of the four main immigration paths, status categories, and your rights.
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How to petition for loved ones — spouses, children, parents, and siblings — step by step.
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Protections for people fleeing harm — asylum, U Visa, T Visa, VAWA, and SIJ.
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UrgentWhat to do if you or a loved one is detained by ICE or placed in removal proceedings.
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Find your home country’s consulate anywhere in the United States — 16 countries, addresses, phone numbers and appointment portals.
Open the directoryCall 24/7Almost every family case starts with a petition that proves the relationship, and finishes either inside the U.S. or at a consulate abroad. Which of those two endings applies to you is the single most important thing to get right at the start.
Form I-130 is how a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident asks USCIS to recognize a qualifying family relationship. It is a petition, not an application for status: approval proves the relationship and reserves a place in line, and your relative still has to take a second step — adjustment of status inside the U.S., or an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad.
U.S. citizens petitioning for a spouse, child, parent or sibling, and lawful permanent residents petitioning for a spouse or unmarried child.
An approved I-130 by itself gives your relative nothing to work with: no work permit, no travel document, and no protection from removal. If your relative is in immigration court, the petition does not pause the case — the court has its own deadlines.
The K-1 route lets a U.S. citizen bring a fiancé(e) to the United States to marry. It starts with Form I-129F, moves to a consulate for the visa interview, and ends with a marriage within 90 days of entry followed by an adjustment of status application. Lawful permanent residents cannot use it.
U.S. citizens engaged to someone living abroad, where both people are legally free to marry and intend to marry within 90 days of the fiancé(e) entering the U.S.
If you are already married, the K-1 is the wrong form — a spouse goes through Form I-130 instead. And if the marriage does not happen within 90 days, the K-1 holder falls out of status; there is no extension and no second 90 days.
Consular processing is the path for a beneficiary who is outside the United States. After the petition is approved, the National Visa Center collects the fees and civil documents, the U.S. embassy or consulate holds the interview, and the person enters the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident.
Beneficiaries of an approved petition who live outside the United States, and people inside the U.S. who are not eligible to adjust status here.
Leaving the United States can trigger a bar on returning if you accumulated unlawful presence here. Get legal advice about that before you book any travel, because the bar attaches on departure and is much harder to solve from outside the country.
These are the applications that turn an approved petition into status and a work permit. They are filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and they depend on being eligible on the day you file.
Form I-485 is how someone already inside the United States applies for a green card without leaving. It requires an immigrant visa to be immediately available, a lawful entry in most cases, and admissibility. Many people file the work permit and travel document applications at the same time.
People physically in the U.S. who are the beneficiary of an approved or concurrently filed petition and whose category has a visa available.
Travelling without an approved advance parole document can be treated as abandoning the application, and any arrest while it is pending has to be disclosed. Eligibility is judged on the day you file, so a change in your status or your petitioner’s situation can undo the filing.
Form I-765 asks USCIS for an Employment Authorization Document. It is not a status on its own: you have to already fit one of the eligibility categories listed in the form instructions, and the category code you write on the form controls whether the application can be approved at all.
People with a pending adjustment of status or asylum application, DACA and TPS holders, certain spouses of visa holders, and the other categories the instructions list.
Filing under the wrong category code is the most common reason these get denied, and a denial does not refund the fee. Letting the card expire can cost you the job even when the underlying case is still pending.
Naturalization is the last step, and it is the one where your whole immigration history gets reviewed again. Preparation matters more here than anywhere else.
Form N-400 is the application to naturalize. Most applicants need five years as a lawful permanent resident, or three years if they are married to and living with a U.S. citizen, plus continuous residence, physical presence, good moral character, and the English and civics tests unless an exception applies.
Lawful permanent residents who have held the green card long enough and want to become U.S. citizens.
Long trips abroad can break continuous residence, and naturalization is the point where an old arrest, an unfiled tax year, or an inconsistency in an earlier application gets reviewed again. Talk to a lawyer before filing if any of that is in your history — a denial can put your permanent residence in question too.
These paths run on hard deadlines and on rules that change with litigation and Federal Register notices. Check the official page again before every filing, even if you filed the same thing last year.
A DACA renewal is filed on Form I-821D together with Form I-765 and the I-765 worksheet. USCIS recommends filing roughly four to five months before your current period expires. What USCIS is able to accept has changed repeatedly because of ongoing federal litigation, so read the official DACA page on the day you file.
People who already have deferred action under DACA and need to renew it and their work permit.
DACA is deferred action. It is not a status, it does not lead to permanent residence on its own, and it can be affected by a court ruling between the day you file and the day USCIS decides. Do not let the work permit lapse while you wait, and do not travel abroad without advance parole and legal advice.
Temporary Protected Status runs country by country. Each designation has its own registration period, its own end date and its own rules about work permits, all announced in the Federal Register and published on the USCIS TPS page. Re-registration is filed on Form I-821, usually with Form I-765 if you want an EAD.
People who already hold TPS under a country designation and need to re-register during the announced period.
Missing the re-registration window can cost you the status, and country designations have been extended and terminated on short notice. TPS also does not create a path to permanent residence by itself, so ask whether another petition is available to you while the status is active.
Asylum protects people who fear persecution in their country because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Form I-589 generally has to be filed within one year of your last arrival in the United States, with narrow exceptions. The case is heard either by a USCIS asylum office or by an immigration judge.
People in the United States who fear returning to their country, whether or not they are already in immigration court.
The one-year deadline is the reason many strong cases are lost. Filing an application a judge finds frivolous can bar you from immigration benefits permanently, so inconsistencies and other people’s templates are dangerous here. Get advice before you file.
If you received a Notice to Appear, your case is before the Executive Office for Immigration Review, not USCIS. The rules, the deadlines and the forms are different, there is no government-paid lawyer, and missing a single hearing can produce a removal order in your absence. Our immigration court guide walks through each hearing type.
Anyone who has been served a Notice to Appear, has a hearing date, or has a family member detained by immigration authorities.
Missing a hearing can result in a removal order issued in your absence, and reopening that order is difficult and time-limited. An appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals is generally due within 30 days of the judge’s decision — confirm the date on your paperwork and do not wait.
Immigration court runs on different rules and much harder deadlines than USCIS. Our court guide covers master calendar, individual and bond hearings, your rights in the courtroom, forms of relief, what to bring, and what happens if a hearing is missed.
Read the immigration court guideSource and date: written from the official government pages linked on this page, last read on September 18, 2026. If that date looks old to you, treat the government page as current and this page as out of date.
A consultation is the most direct way to find out which path is actually open to you. Consultations are free and available in English and Spanish.