Short answer: the spouse of a U.S. citizen is exempt from some of the restrictions on applying — the ones for being out of status at filing, for failing to maintain status, and for having worked without permission. That alone does not settle whether an application is the right step. The exemption is written into the statute and repeated in the regulations, provision by provision. What it removes is those restrictions — not the other requirements for a green card, and not the government's discretion. Where it stops has nothing to do with status either. This article is about applications made inside the United States. It is written as of September 2026. The rule described below is scheduled by its own notice to take effect on September 15, 2026.
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Two questions that get collapsed into one
"My status ended" and "I cannot get a green card" sound like the same sentence. In the regulations they are not. Whether your F-1 status ended is a question about the terms of your admission. Whether that blocks an adjustment application is a separate question answered by a list of restricted categories — and that list says who is exempt.
What the list actually says
The statute bars adjustment for someone who accepted unauthorized employment before filing, who is in unlawful immigration status on the date of filing, or who failed — other than through no fault of their own or for technical reasons — to maintain a lawful status continuously since entry. One exception governs all three: other than an immediate relative. The spouse of a U.S. citizen is an immediate relative.
The regulations then repeat it one restriction at a time. Unauthorized employment since 1977: the restriction does not apply to an immediate relative. Not in lawful immigration status on the filing date: except an immediate relative. Failure to maintain continuously a lawful status since entry: except an immediate relative. Admitted under the visa waiver program: other than an immediate relative.
There is one more, and of the ones written about conduct it is the broadest. It reaches anyone ever employed without authorization or who has otherwise at any time violated the terms of their admission as a nonimmigrant — and it too ends with except an alien who is an immediate relative. That phrase, "otherwise at any time violated the terms of admission," is the wide part. It is what would reach a student who stopped attending, who dropped below the required full course of study without the approval the rules provide for, or who stayed on after the authorized period, including any grace period, had run out. Finishing a program and using authorized practical training or the departure period is not that. The immediate relative exception applies to this category too.
One thing that follows from this, and is easy to get backwards: filing does not by itself let you work. Working needs its own authorization.
Where the exception stops
What matters here is not status but how you entered.
Adjustment under the statute is available to someone who was inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States. The regulations list, among the restricted classes, any person who was not admitted or paroled following inspection by an immigration officer — and that entry alone carries no immediate relative exception. Two other categories on the same list are written the same way, and they are about arrival too: arriving in transit without a visa, and arriving as a crewman. So the carve-out that covers a lapsed status does not reach an entry that was neither an admission after inspection nor a parole. That is a limit on this exception, not a statement about every other route in the law.
Two further limits sit alongside all of this. Adjustment is discretionary: the statute says the status "may be adjusted," in the government's discretion, and eligibility is not the same as approval. And the exception addresses adjustment. It is not a general amnesty for every consequence a status lapse can carry, including what a departure from the United States can trigger.
What changes on September 15, 2026, and who it reaches
A final rule published July 17, 2026 replaces "duration of status" with a fixed period of admission for F, J and I nonimmigrants, scheduled to take effect on September 15, 2026. Someone admitted as an F nonimmigrant to begin a program after that date gets a fixed period instead of an open-ended one: the time the program on the Form I-20 needs, capped at four years. Some programs are capped shorter than that, and short periods before and after do not count toward the cap.
For people already here, the rule writes a transition. Its opening words decide who it covers: those with F or J status who are properly maintaining their status on September 15, 2026 and who were admitted for duration of status may remain until the later of the expiration date on an employment authorization document or the program end date on the I-20 or DS-2019 — capped at four years from September 15, 2026, plus the departure period, sixty days for F and thirty for J.
So the transition protects people who are in status on that date. If you are not maintaining F or J status on September 15, that paragraph does not cover you, and it does not change the immediate relative exception described above either way. The explanation published with the rule adds that the rule is not retroactive and does not impose new or additional penalties for violations that occurred before the effective date. What matters instead is the restricted list, and where its exception stops. Whether a status lapse happened and how unlawful presence is counted are separate questions; this article is about the first.
(Inside that transition there is one dated detail for students in practical training, and the two halves are not the same. An F-1 recommended for post-completion OPT who files the employment authorization application on or before March 18, 2027 — and before the period of admission, including the sixty-day departure period, expires — is not required to file the extension of stay application as well. For an F-1 recommended for a STEM OPT extension the condition is different: the filing must come before the current OPT employment authorization document expires, and still on or before March 18, 2027. A student who leaves the United States before filing, and is then admitted for a fixed period, has to file both applications.)
Where the answer splits
- A lapsed status with a lawful entry and a citizen spouse is the case the exception addresses. The facts still have to be proved, and approval is still discretionary.
- An entry without inspection and admission or parole is a different question entirely, and the exception does not reach it. So is a case where the marriage is to a permanent resident rather than a citizen, because the exception is written for immediate relatives.
- A departure changes the question again, whatever the exception says about adjustment.
What does not change the rules
- How long the status has been over. The restriction and the exception are written without a time limit; what a lapse costs elsewhere is a separate matter.
- Whether a school terminated the record, or the program simply ended. Finishing a program is not by itself a violation — authorized practical training and the departure period sit inside the authorized stay. Staying on past what was authorized is one of the things the restricted category does reach.
- Having worked. Unauthorized employment is named in the restrictions, and it is named in the exception.
- The September 2026 rule, if you are not maintaining status on that date. The transition is written for people who are.
FAQ
My F-1 ended two years ago. Does that disqualify me? Not by itself. Being out of status at filing and failing to maintain status are both restricted categories, and both are written with an exception for the immediate relative of a U.S. citizen.
Does working without permission disqualify me? It is one of the listed restrictions, and it is one of the ones the immediate relative exception addresses.
Does the exception cover everything? No. The category for a person not admitted or paroled after inspection carries no immediate relative exception, and adjustment remains discretionary.
Does the September 15, 2026 change help me? The transition in that rule is written for people properly maintaining F or J status on that date. If you are not maintaining status on that date, the transition does not cover you.
General information only — not legal advice for your case. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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