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A family (Dad, Mom, Child) came to the US as asylees, and they were able to obtain greencards under categories AS6(Approved primary asylee), AS7(Spouse of asylee), and AS8(Child of asylee) after residing in US 5 years.

Say Dad naturalized a few years later, is it possible for the mom and the child to apply for I485 adjustment of status to change their greencard status from AS7 and AS8 to IR1(Spouse of a U.S. citizen) and IR2(Child of a U.S. citizen)?

Thanks

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    Why do you want to change your green card status? It doesn’t make any sense once you have it. Or ... Why not just naturalize yourself?
    – RoboKaren
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 4:21
  • @RoboKaren I wanna see if it's possible. If it's the child naturalized, and the parents can't because their English is not good enough. And their home country would give them hard time when renewing passport due to the GreenCard category being Asylum. It would be better if they can have a different category rather than displaying as asylee
    – martin
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 5:02
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    @RoboKaren It's very bad practice for an asylee to travel using the country of origin passport, or even to appear in the country or origin, or to seek to renew that passport. Review the Answers and comments here: travel.stackexchange.com/questions/67434/…. Much better would be to travel using a Travel Document issued by the country of asylum.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 5:50
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    I agree, the country of origin probably doesn't care. But the asylum country would care (if it discovers the asylee is using the origin passport, the asylee's status can be compromised or lost) and the asylee would care if something bad trip-wise happened overseas and he or she were returned by the airline or other national authorities (over his objection) to the country of origin and the CoO is one that did actually care, and thereupon arrested the asylee (or worse).
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 16:08
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    @DavidSupportsMonica Thanks, I caught up with some reading, and realized that Travel Document is needed instead of the origin country's passport for traveling outside of US except the origin country. And of course the long term solution is naturalization, but besides that, adjust the status from asylee to other types would be a great alternative. Per user102008's answer, it's doable but with extra steps
    – martin
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 19:39

1 Answer 1

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An archived version of the USCIS Adjudicator's Field Manual Chapter 23.2(c)(2)(B) seems to say that permanent residents cannot do Adjustment of Status unless they first lose their status through abandonment, rescission, or removal. (This chapter has been superseded by the USCIS Policy Manual, but I cannot find equivalent information in the corresponding USCIS Policy Manual volumes.) And voluntary abandonment of permanent residency can only be done by filing I-407 from outside the US or when entering at a port of entry, so I don't think Adjustment of Status is possible.

According to 9 FAM 504.10-3(C)(1), a permanent resident can be issued an immigrant visa in a new category by a US consulate abroad without first relinquishing their green card. So it seems like what you want is possible, but only by doing Consular Processing abroad for an immigrant visa.

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  • Thanks! It looks like they aren't prevented from applying for another immigrant visa as green card holder. Since the whole family are already residing in the US, I don't think the consular processing is applicable. My concern is that would it consider as immigration fraud due to their status being asylee first, then attempt to convert to other status through having one of the family member naturalized
    – martin
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 20:07
  • @martin: There is no fraud if you were really eligible for asylum (e.g. in fear of persecution in your home country) at the time you got asylum. There is nothing wrong with someone who is or was eligible for asylum getting permanent residency through another basis, and there is nothing wrong with a relative of a US citizen or permanent resident getting asylum if they were really eligible.
    – user102008
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 20:12
  • Thanks for the clarification. I was reading an article stating that the parents of US citizen gained US entry in order to adjust status, as applied for tourist visa, and later decided to apply for a green card once they are admitted into US. It might have some trouble with USCIS
    – martin
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 20:24
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    @martin: You are supposed to not intend to immigrate on that stay when entering the US on visitor visa. But there is no issue with intention to immigrate when obtaining asylum; in fact it is expected that asylees will apply for permanent residency.
    – user102008
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 20:30
  • Thank you so much. You have been very informative and great help
    – martin
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 20:50

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