Short answer: in our experience, in most marriage cases the facts choose for you. There are two ways to get the green card: applying from inside the United States ("adjustment of status") or applying at a U.S. consulate abroad for an immigrant visa ("consular processing"). Both start with the same petition. Which one applies is usually settled by five facts, and only occasionally by preference. This page assumes the petitioning spouse is a U.S. citizen; when the petitioner is a permanent resident, visa availability and status rules add conditions of their own, as of September 2026.

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1. Where the applying spouse is right now

If the applying spouse lives abroad, the route is consular processing: the petition is approved, sent to the National Visa Center, and the interview happens at the consulate. Adjustment of status requires being physically in the United States when the application is filed. Coming to the United States on a visitor visa in order to apply here is a different problem, because a visitor visa is for a temporary visit.

2. How the spouse in the United States entered

Adjustment inside the United States is generally available only after an entry with inspection, whether on a visa, on ESTA, or with parole. An entry without inspection generally closes that route, apart from narrow exceptions, which leaves the consulate, and that is where fact number three takes over.

3. Whether leaving the country triggers a bar

In our experience this is the fact that decides more cases than any other. A person who has accumulated more than 180 days of unlawful presence, as the law counts it, and then leaves is barred from returning for three years; one year or more, ten years. The bar is triggered by the departure itself, and unlawful presence is not always the same as the time spent out of status.

For the spouse of a U.S. citizen who entered lawfully, an overstay by itself does not block adjustment inside the United States, so, if there is no other ground against the person, the bar does not come into play. Send the same person to a consulate, and the moment they leave, it does. A provisional waiver can be requested before departure so that the decision is known in advance, but it depends on proving extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen or resident spouse or parent, it is not automatic, and even an approved waiver does not guarantee the visa. Prior removals or unlawful re-entries raise separate bars that this waiver does not cover.

4. Work and travel while the case is pending

Inside the United States, the applicant can request a work permit and a travel document along with the green card application, and can wait here while the case is decided, although the application itself does not create a status or permission to work. With consular processing no work permit comes with the case; unless the person holds some other status, they wait outside the United States.

One more point on the travel document: under a decision issued August 13, 2026, leaving on that document on or after that date counts as a departure for the ten-year bar for anyone with a year or more of unlawful presence; trips taken before that date are not covered by the new rule. For a person without that history the document remains the way to travel while the case is pending, though re-entry is never guaranteed; it no longer protects a person with that history.

5. Cost and who conducts the interview

Consular processing has lower government fees as of September 2026, because the work permit and travel document are not part of it; the amounts are in our fee article. The interview is conducted by a consular officer abroad rather than by USCIS in the United States, and the petitioning spouse is generally not part of it.

Where the choice is genuinely open

When the applying spouse is abroad and has no unlawful-presence history, the route is consular and nothing is lost by it. When the applying spouse is in the United States after a lawful entry, adjustment is usually the natural route, though some couples still choose consular processing, for example when the applicant must return home during the wait anyway. When the applying spouse is in the United States after an entry without inspection, the answer runs through fact three and the waiver, and that is a calculation of dates, not a preference.

FAQ

We are in the United States. Can we choose consular processing anyway? Yes, but leaving is what triggers the unlawful-presence bar if there is more than 180 days of it. Count the days before you count on the option.

My spouse is abroad. Can they visit while the consular case is pending? A visitor visa is for a temporary stay, and a pending immigrant petition is part of what the officer weighs. Visiting and then applying for the green card from inside the United States can raise questions about what was said at entry.

Can we switch routes midway? The petition is the same either way. Moving an approved petition to the consulate, or filing inside the United States after it, is possible, but each switch has its own timing and, for the consulate, the departure question above.

General information only — not legal advice for your case. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

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