Short answer: for a U.S. citizen's spouse, student status after filing is not a requirement for the green card, but it may be the only lawful status you hold while you wait. In explaining what bars a green card application, USCIS policy says that properly filing for a green card from inside the United States (called adjustment of status) while you are in status does not, by itself, violate that status. A U.S. citizen's spouse is also exempt from the rules that bar applicants who worked without permission or fell out of status, so losing F-1 after filing does not, by itself, stop the case. That does not make unauthorized work harmless. Under the general rule, unauthorized work is a failure to keep your status, and whether work on the green card work permit, called a (c)(9) card, outside the student rules keeps student status is not answered by the USCIS and student-program guidance reviewed for this guide. With no settled answer, do not count on student status surviving work on that card. Working only within the student rules avoids the question. Once status is lost you have no status to rely on while you wait, none left if the case is denied, and you may be placed in removal proceedings. What F-1 still affects is whether you hold a lawful status during the wait, what is left if the case is denied, and whether you have another basis to work if the green card work permit lapses. Travel is a separate question: even with a valid student visa, leaving without advance permission is treated as giving up the application, and even a trip with that permission carries its own risk, covered below. As of October 2026.

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What filing does, and what it does not do

A student visa is for someone who plans to leave the United States after studying, so people worry that filing for a green card clashes with student status. In discussing the green card restrictions, USCIS policy says an applicant does not violate a temporary (nonimmigrant) status "merely by filing" a green card application, as long as it was properly filed while the applicant was in lawful status. The law tests that intent when a visa is requested and when a person asks to be admitted at the border. Keeping student status after that still depends on following the student rules, such as staying enrolled or on authorized practical training and working only as they allow.

Filing does not give you a status either. Immigration law keeps track of two different things. One is unlawful presence: the days counted as staying without permission, which can later limit a return to the United States. The other is whether you hold a lawful status right now. While a properly filed application (Form I-485) is pending, those days are not counted as unlawful presence. But USCIS policy says a pending application "does not confer lawful immigration status."

Not building up unlawful presence is not the same as having a status. So if student status ends during the wait, you are in the United States with a pending application and no status, and USCIS policy says such a person "may be subject to removal proceedings unless and until" the application is approved.

If the application is denied

USCIS gives this example: a person who filed three days before their status ran out, and whose application was later denied, is considered to have had no lawful status from the day the original status ran out. Unlawful presence, in turn, can start to build up after the denial, once nothing is pending. A work permit granted on the basis of the application may also be ended after a denial.

Someone who has kept the student rules since entering, and whose permitted time in student status has not run out, can keep staying in the United States in student status after a denial. As noted above, filing the green card application does not by itself violate the terms of student status. But someone who has already lost student status by the time of the denial cannot fall back on student status. A trip abroad adds a risk. A person who leaves and returns on advance parole is let back in as a parolee. The regulation says that if that person's application is later denied, the person "will be treated as an applicant for admission," and USCIS policy describes such people being placed in removal proceedings as arriving aliens. In plain terms, the person is handled like someone just arriving at the border and may be placed in removal proceedings.

Why the green card case does not depend on F-1

USCIS policy says an immediate relative, which includes a U.S. citizen's spouse, "may be eligible to adjust status even if" the person worked without permission, was out of status on the filing day, did not keep status since entry, or violated the terms of a nonimmigrant status. So letting F-1 end after filing does not, by itself, stop the case. The marriage and the rest of the record are still reviewed. This is about whether the application is barred. Unauthorized work still means failing to keep student status (work on a (c)(9) card is discussed below), and then you have no status to rely on while you wait, may be placed in removal proceedings before approval, and have none left if the case is denied.

A permanent resident's spouse does not get this exception. That case is covered in a separate guide.

Where the work permit meets the student rules

A pending green card application lets you ask for a work permit (Form I-765) in a category for adjustment applicants, called (c)(9). Filing alone does not give you any new permission to work. To work on the basis of the green card application, you need the approved card.

Some work comes with student status itself. Under the employment regulations, on-campus work (generally up to 20 hours a week while school is in session) and CPT, training that is part of the school program and approved by the school, are allowed as part of student status without a separate card. USCIS policy says an adjustment applicant whose status itself allows work does not need the (c)(9) card to continue that work while the application is pending, as long as the person keeps to the terms of that status. OPT, work in the field of study usually after the program, is different: it generally needs its own OPT work permit and is limited to the dates on it, with a few exceptions. For example, while a timely request to extend OPT for a STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) degree is pending, work may continue after the OPT card expires until USCIS decides, for no more than 180 days. Some other student work, such as work because of severe economic hardship, also needs its own permit.

The (c)(9) card is permission from USCIS to work. Whether work on that card, outside what the student rules allow, keeps student status intact is a separate question, and the USCIS and student-program guidance reviewed for this guide does not answer it. With no settled answer, do not count on student status surviving that work. Someone who wants to keep student status as a fallback in case of a denial can avoid the question by working only within the student rules.

The work permit no longer extends itself

Under current USCIS policy, a (c)(9) work permit is issued for up to 18 months at a time, both the first card and each renewal. A renewal filed before the old card expired used to extend it automatically for a limited time, if it met the conditions. For renewals filed on or after October 30, 2025, it no longer does, and a final rule published in the Federal Register on October 14, 2026 kept that change. In the rule's own example, a person with a pending green card application whose renewal is still undecided when the card expires "cannot continue to work … unless the alien is employment authorized on a separate basis."

If you have kept student status by working only as the student rules allow, student status can supply such a basis, but only for the work it allows, such as on-campus work or CPT, and an OPT permit generally only for the dates on it. If you have been working off campus on the (c)(9) card, there is no settled answer on whether student status continued, as noted above, so you cannot count on it as that basis. A job you could hold only on the (c)(9) card, such as off-campus work that is not CPT and not within an OPT permit, has no other basis. Without another basis, a gap between cards is a gap in work.

A trip abroad during the case

While the green card application is pending, leaving the United States without advance permission (advance parole) is treated as giving up the application. The exceptions cover a few groups, such as certain H, L, K and V visa holders who keep that status. Students are not among them, so a valid student visa does not take the place of advance parole. A person who returns on advance parole comes back in as a parolee and, if the application is later denied, is handled like someone just arriving at the border and may be placed in removal proceedings.

When F-1 ends anyway

Student status also ends on its own schedule, for example once the program or the practical training after it is over and the period allowed for departure has passed. When the green card is approved, student status ends and you move into the new status, and the student record (SEVIS) kept by the school and the student program, if still active, is closed with the reason "Change of Status Approved." Until then, for a U.S. citizen's spouse, the end of F-1 does not, by itself, stop the green card case. It changes where you stand while you wait and if the case is denied.

Where the answer splits

One path is to stay enrolled, or on authorized practical training, and work only as the student rules allow. The other is to work on the (c)(9) card outside those rules; whether student status survives that is the unanswered question above, so it cannot be counted on. A few facts decide the choice. Whether the card will be granted at all, since USCIS decides these cards in its discretion. How long the case may take, compared with a card of up to 18 months whose renewal no longer extends it; if the case runs longer than the card, there can be a gap in work. Whether anything in your record could lead to a denial. Whether the job you want fits inside on-campus work, CPT or OPT. Whether a trip abroad is planned before a decision.

FAQ

I left school after filing. Will my green card be denied for that? Not for that reason alone. For a U.S. citizen's spouse, being out of status is not by itself a bar to the application. But while the case is pending you have no lawful status, you may be placed in removal proceedings at any time before the case is approved, and a denial would leave you with no status.

I filed my (c)(9) renewal on or after October 30, 2025, and my card expired. Can I keep working? Not on that card. Once the renewal is approved, you may work again within the dates on the new card. In the meantime, you may work only if you have another basis. For example, if you have kept student status by working only as the student rules allow, you may do on-campus work or school-approved CPT within those rules. If you have been working off campus on the (c)(9) card, there is no settled answer on whether student status continued, as noted above, so you cannot count on it as a basis to work.

Does filing for a green card put my student status at risk by itself? In explaining what bars a green card application, USCIS policy says filing alone does not violate the status, if you were in status when you properly filed. Whether student status continues after that depends on following the student rules.

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

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