All the Ways to Get a Green Card in the USA (2026 Guide)

Last updated: August 2026

A US green card — lawful permanent residence — can be reached through several completely separate legal systems: family, employment, humanitarian protection, investment, and a random lottery. Most people qualify through only one or two of them, and the fastest route for one person is a dead end for another. This guide maps every major path so you can find yours.

2026 has been an unusually turbulent year in US immigration. DHS rescinded the 2022 public charge rule and replaced it with a broader-discretion rule (see our public charge guide), DHS finalized the end of Duration of Status for F-1 students (see our F-1 rule guide), a $100,000 fee landed on certain new H-1B petitions, and diversity visa issuance was paused. Treat everything below as an August 2026 snapshot and verify against uscis.gov and travel.state.gov before you act.

1. Family-based green cards

Family is the largest single source of green cards, and it splits into two very different tiers.

Immediate relatives of US citizens — no annual cap

• IR-1 — spouse of a US citizen
• IR-2 — unmarried child under 21 of a US citizen
• IR-5 — parent of a US citizen, where the citizen is 21 or older
• Widow(er)s of US citizens, who may self-petition in defined circumstances

Because there is no annual cap on this group, there is no priority-date queue — a visa number is always available and the only wait is processing time.

Family preference categories — capped, with waits

These categories have annual limits, so applicants wait for their priority date to become current under the monthly Visa Bulletin:

• F1 — unmarried adult sons and daughters (21+) of US citizens
• F2A — spouses and unmarried children under 21 of green card holders
• F2B — unmarried adult sons and daughters of green card holders
• F3 — married sons and daughters of US citizens, any age
• F4 — siblings of US citizens, where the petitioning citizen is 21 or older

A key limit people miss: green card holders can only petition for a spouse and unmarried children (F2A/F2B). Parents and siblings can only be petitioned by a US citizen.

The paperwork path

1. Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, filed by the sponsoring relative
2. Form I-485 (adjustment of status) if the beneficiary is inside the US, or Form DS-260 (consular processing) if abroad
3. Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, from the sponsor
4. Form I-693, medical examination by a designated civil surgeon or panel physician

Marriage-based green cards and the 2026 interview change

If you have been married less than two years when the green card is approved, you receive a conditional two-year green card (CR-1 for the spouse, CR-2 for a child). You must file Form I-751 to remove conditions before it expires, or you risk falling out of status.

New in 2026: USCIS has reinstated mandatory in-person interviews for all marriage-based green card applicants, without the waiver exceptions that previously spared some low-risk, long-married couples. Plan for an interview in every marriage case and prepare documentary evidence of a bona fide relationship accordingly.

How long does it take?

Illustrative only, and highly variable: recent USCIS data has shown I-130 petitions for immediate relatives of US citizens running around five years at some field offices, while National Visa Center processing can move faster. Concurrent I-130/I-485 filing from inside the US for immediate relatives has been running roughly eight to nine months for the adjustment decision, again varying significantly by field office. These numbers move constantly — check the current USCIS processing-time data for your specific service center rather than relying on any article.

2. Employment-based green cards (EB-1 through EB-5)

Roughly 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas are available each year across five categories, subject to a 7% per-country cap. That cap is what creates the severe backlogs for high-demand countries — India most acutely, and China to a lesser degree — where some EB-2 and EB-3 applicants face waits measured in years to over a decade.

EB-1: priority workers

• Individuals of extraordinary ability — no job offer or labor certification required, self-petition allowed
• Outstanding professors and researchers
• Multinational executives and managers

EB-1 is the fastest employment category and has often been current for most countries.

EB-2: advanced degrees and exceptional ability

Normally requires a job offer and PERM labor certification — unless you apply under the National Interest Waiver (NIW), which allows self-petition with no job offer and no PERM where the work has substantial merit and national importance and you are well positioned to advance it.

EB-3: skilled workers, professionals and other workers

• Skilled workers — two or more years of training or experience
• Professionals — US bachelor's degree or equivalent
• Other workers — unskilled roles under two years of experience, with even longer waits

EB-3 requires a job offer and PERM. It has drawn increased applicant interest in 2026 as an alternative pathway following the new $100,000 H-1B fee described below.

EB-4: special immigrants

Narrow categories including certain religious workers, certain juveniles under Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status, and other defined groups.

EB-5: immigrant investors

Requires a qualifying investment — direct or through a Regional Center — and creation of a required number of US jobs. EB-5 has Rural, High Unemployment and Infrastructure set-aside categories which in 2026 have generally been Current even for India and China, while the main unreserved category is backlogged. For nationals of backlogged countries who have investment capital, that makes the set-asides one of the comparatively fast options available.

The standard employment process

1. PERM labor certification with the Department of Labor (most EB-2 and EB-3 cases, filed by the employer)
2. Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker
3. Form I-485 (adjustment of status) or DS-260 (consular processing)

EB-1 extraordinary ability and EB-2 NIW skip the PERM step entirely — that alone can remove a year or more from the timeline.

Visa Bulletin snapshot — August 2026

The Department of State's monthly Visa Bulletin sets cut-off dates by category and country of birth. As of the August 2026 bulletin:

• EB-1 — Current for most countries
• EB-2 — Current for most countries, but unavailable for India
• EB-3 — modest forward movement for most countries; India and the Philippines unchanged and backlogged
• EB-5 Reserved (Rural, High Unemployment, Infrastructure) — Current across all countries
• EB-5 Unreserved — backlogged for India

This is a snapshot, not a rule. The bulletin updates every month — always read the current month at travel.state.gov rather than this article.

Landscape context: the $100k H-1B fee and wage-weighted lottery

Neither of these is a green card path, but both are reshaping employment-based strategy. A September 2025 Presidential Proclamation imposed a $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions — for beneficiaries abroad without a valid H-1B visa, filed after September 21, 2025. It does not change green card rules, but it has pushed more people toward EB-1, EB-2 NIW and EB-3 as more direct routes, and made employers weigh sponsorship costs differently. Separately, in December 2025 USCIS finalized a rule shifting the H-1B lottery from a pure random draw to a wage-weighted selection system, effective for the 2026 cap season. This is a fast-moving and litigated area — verify current status before planning around it. Our H-1B sponsorship guide and US work visa types guide cover the nonimmigrant side, and if you are between jobs, the layoff survival guide covers how a job loss affects a pending I-140 or I-485.

3. Humanitarian and protection-based green cards

• Asylees and refugees — may apply for a green card one year after being granted asylum or refugee status; asylees file Form I-485, and refugees are generally required to apply.
• VAWA self-petition — for abused spouses, children or parents of US citizens or green card holders. The petition can be filed without the abuser's knowledge or involvement.
• U visa — for victims of certain crimes who assist law enforcement. After holding U status for the required period, the holder may become eligible to apply for a green card.
• T visa — for victims of human trafficking, which can similarly lead to a green card after a qualifying period.
• Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status — for certain immigrant children abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent, established through state juvenile court findings, leading to EB-4 green card eligibility.

Other narrow provisions exist — the Cuban Adjustment Act and various country- or program-specific humanitarian categories among them. These are outside general scope and always need individualized review by an immigration attorney.

4. The Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery — currently paused

The DV program, created by the Immigration Act of 1990, makes roughly 55,000 green cards available annually — recently about 52,000 after statutory reductions — by random lottery to people from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US. Handle this section carefully: the program is in an unusually unstable state.

• Issuance is paused. The Department of State paused issuance of diversity visas starting December 23, 2025, and the pause remained in effect as of mid-2026 with no announced end date. USCIS has instructed officers to hold and review pending DV-based adjustment of status applications. Already-issued diversity visas were not revoked, but no new ones were being issued during the pause.
• New entry requirements from DV-2027. Under an anti-fraud rule effective April 10, 2026, entrants must for the first time pay a $1 entry fee and submit a scan of a valid passport's biographic and signature page at the time of electronic entry. The entry form now uses "sex" instead of "gender" and "date of birth" instead of "age."
• DV-2026 has a hard deadline. Selectees must receive their immigrant visa or complete adjustment of status by September 30, 2026. Unused selections are void and do not carry over, and this statutory deadline is not extended by the pause — which has left many DV-2026 selectees who have not yet processed in a very difficult position.
• DV-2027 and DV-2028. DV-2027 registration was delayed and opened later than the usual early-October to early-November window; results were announced around May 2026, but issuance remains subject to the pause. DV-2028 registration is expected in the October–November 2026 timeframe, though nothing is confirmed.

Bottom line: the DV Lottery remains law on paper, but as of mid-2026 it is functionally frozen for new issuances, its deadlines are unforgiving, and the situation is changing quickly. If you are relying on this path, check dvprogram.state.gov and official USCIS and State Department guidance directly and very frequently, and strongly consider consulting an immigration attorney.

5. Other and less-common paths

• Military service — certain enlistments under MAVNI-type programs and related provisions can open immigration benefits. Narrow and highly situational.
• Registry — a little-known provision allowing certain long-term continuous US residents present since before January 1, 1972 to apply. Extremely narrow and rarely applicable today.
• Cancellation of removal — available only as a defense in immigration court proceedings, not something to seek out. It exists as a legal safety net and always requires an attorney.

How do I know which path fits me?

1. Do you have a close US citizen or green card holder relative? A citizen spouse, parent or child puts you in the uncapped immediate-relative track. A green card holder spouse puts you in F2A.
2. Do you have a US employer willing to sponsor you? That points to EB-2 or EB-3 with PERM — and to a country-specific wait you should check on the Visa Bulletin before committing.
3. Do you have extraordinary ability, advanced credentials, or nationally important work? EB-1A or EB-2 NIW let you self-petition and skip PERM entirely.
4. Were you a victim of abuse, trafficking, or a qualifying crime — or do you fear persecution at home? VAWA, U, T, SIJ and asylum-based paths exist specifically for you, and confidentiality protections apply.
5. Do you have investment capital? EB-5, and particularly the rural, high unemployment and infrastructure set-asides, can bypass the backlogs that block EB-2 and EB-3 for some nationalities.
6. Are you from an eligible DV country? Enter if you qualify, but treat it as a lottery ticket, not a plan, given the current pause and uncertainty.

How AbroadHub can help

Choosing between these paths is rarely a research problem — it is a "who has actually done this, and who is tracking the changes right now" problem. On AbroadHub, you can follow verified visa and immigration lawyers in Nearby through their Professional or Business profiles to get real-time updates as rules shift — genuinely useful in a year where the public charge rule, the F-1 rule, the H-1B fee and the DV lottery pause all moved within months of each other. When you are ready to actually file — an I-130, an I-140, an NIW petition, an EB-5 investment or adjustment of status, depending on your path — you can message or book the same lawyer directly through the app instead of starting a cold search from zero.

The community feed adds the other half: people who came through each of these routes — NIW self-petitioners, F4 siblings who waited a decade, EB-5 set-aside investors, DV-2026 selectees living through the pause — sharing what the process was really like. Pair this guide with our public charge guide, which affects nearly every green card category, and install the app to keep your lawyer, your community and your reminders in one place.

Conclusion

There is no single best way to get a green card — only the path your family situation, employer, credentials, history or nationality actually opens. Identify the one or two categories you plausibly fit, check the current Visa Bulletin and USCIS processing times for those specific categories, and get professional review before you file. In a year moving as fast as 2026, the most expensive mistake is planning around last year's rules.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. US immigration laws, fees and policies change frequently and some of the changes described here are subject to ongoing litigation. Verify current rules on uscis.gov and travel.state.gov, and consult a licensed immigration attorney about your individual situation.