Updated November 11, 2026

Work visa and green card: key differences and how to transition

A work visa is a temporary nonimmigrant classification that lets you work in the United States under specific conditions, usually after a prospective employer files a petition on your behalf with USCIS. An employment-based green card grants lawful permanent resident status, and USCIS states that about 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas are available each fiscal year for workers and their spouses and children. If you are already in the United States on a temporary visa, you can apply for a green card without leaving the country through adjustment of status on Form I-485 once an immigrant visa is immediately available.

Green card vs work visa: what is the difference?

Deciding between a work visa and a green card comes down to how long you can stay and who controls your work authorization. A temporary worker holds nonimmigrant status, where how long you can work and the conditions you must meet depend on the classification granted by the Department of Homeland Security. If you violate any of the conditions of your employment authorization or admission, you could be removed from or denied re-entry into the United States.

An employment-based green card makes you a lawful permanent resident. Instead of temporary stays tied to nonimmigrant renewals, permanent workers live and work permanently in the United States based on their skills, education and work experience. Green card holders can also file Form I-130 to petition for a spouse and unmarried children of any age to immigrate as permanent residents.

Temporary work visa vs employment-based green card (uscis.gov and dol.gov, as of November 2026)

How temporary nonimmigrant work visas work

To work temporarily in the United States as a nonimmigrant, your prospective employer must generally file a Form I-129 petition on your behalf with USCIS. If you live outside the United States, USCIS must usually approve that petition before you can apply to the Department of State for a visa or seek admission from a Customs and Border Protection officer at a port of entry.

Only a few nonimmigrant classifications allow you to work without an employer first filing a petition on your behalf. USCIS lists E-1, E-2, E-3 and TN classifications as exceptions, along with F-1 and M-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors in certain instances. Nonimmigrant E-1 or E-2 principal treaty traders or investors may also be eligible to self-petition.

Your spouse and children can qualify for dependent nonimmigrant classifications, and if they are inside the United States they use Form I-539 to change status or extend their stay. Dependent work rules depend on the visa. Since January 30, 2022, USCIS and CBP issue Forms I-94 with codes E-1S, E-2S, E-3S and L-2S for certain E and L dependent spouses, who are employment authorized incident to status and can use that unexpired Form I-94 as List C evidence on Form I-9 without filing Form I-765.

• H-1B and sub-classifications: specialty occupation workers, including H-1B1 for Chile and Singapore, H-1B2 for Department of Defense cooperative projects and H-1B3 for fashion models. Dependents hold H-4 status.
• L-1A and L-1B: intracompany transferees in managerial or executive roles (L-1A) or positions using specialized knowledge (L-1B). Dependents hold L-2 status.
• O-1 and O-2: persons with extraordinary ability in sciences, arts, education, business, athletics, or motion picture and TV production, and accompanying assistants. Dependents hold O-3 status.
• E-1, E-2 and E-3: treaty traders (E-1), treaty investors (E-2) and Australian specialty occupation professionals (E-3). Dependents hold E-1, E-2 or E-3 dependent status.
• TN: temporary professionals from Mexico and Canada under NAFTA and USMCA. Dependents hold TD status.
• H-2A, H-2B, H-3, CW-1, I, P, Q-1 and R-1: seasonal agricultural workers (H-2A), temporary non-agricultural workers (H-2B), trainees (H-3), CNMI transitional workers (CW-1), foreign media (I), athletes and entertainers (P-1A, P-1B, P-2, P-3), cultural exchange workers (Q-1) and religious workers (R-1).

The 5 employment-based green card preference categories

If you have the right skills, education or work experience, you can seek permanent residence through one of five employment-based immigrant visa preference categories. About 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas are available each fiscal year, and that number includes workers as well as their spouses and children.

Some categories require a permanent job offer from a US employer who acts as your sponsor and files Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, with USCIS. If your category does not require a job offer, such as an alien with extraordinary ability or a researcher and professional requesting a National Interest Waiver, you can self-petition on your own behalf.

Employment-based permanent worker categories and investment amounts from uscis.gov, as of August 2026

How PERM labor certification works (and who skips it)

For most EB-2 and EB-3 green cards, your employer cannot go straight to USCIS. First, the employer must obtain a permanent labor certification from the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. Filing the application is the employer's responsibility, not the employee's. By certifying the application, the Department of Labor confirms that there are not enough able, willing, qualified and available US workers to accept the job at or above the prevailing wage in the area of intended employment, and that hiring you will not hurt the wages and working conditions of similarly employed US workers.

Employers prepare an Application for Prevailing Wage Determination on Form ETA-9141 through the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system, where wage data uses the All Industries database or the ACWIA Higher Education database. Once recruitment is finished, the employer files Form ETA-9089, Application for Permanent Employment Certification. For applications filed on or after June 1, 2023 in FLAG, an approved case receives a signed Form ETA-9089 Final Determination.

Watch the clock once the certification is approved. The Department of Labor states that an approved permanent labor certification is valid for 180 days, and it expires if the employer does not submit it to USCIS with Form I-140 within that 180-day window.

• EB-1, EB-4 and EB-5 workers skip individual labor certification completely.
• Schedule A occupations skip individual DOL review because DOL has already determined there are not enough US workers. Group I covers professional nurses and physical therapists. Group II covers persons of exceptional ability in the sciences or arts (including college and university teachers) and the performing arts. The employer still submits an uncertified Form ETA-9089, a signed Final Determination and a valid prevailing wage determination tracking number in Section E, Item 1 directly with the USCIS petition.
• EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) petitions ask USCIS to waive the job offer and the labor certification in the national interest, and must include a completed Form ETA-9089 Appendix A and a signed Final Determination.

How to transition from a work visa to a green card

If you are already inside the United States in a lawful nonimmigrant status, you can apply for lawful permanent resident status without returning home for consular processing. This path is called adjustment of status, and you apply on Form I-485. To qualify as an EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3 applicant, you must have been inspected and admitted or inspected and paroled into the United States. You must also be physically present in the country when you file Form I-485. An immigrant visa must be immediately available both when you file and when USCIS makes a final decision. In addition, you must have no adjustment bars under INA 245(c) or grounds of inadmissibility under INA 212(a).

Work through the transition in this order so you do not miss a validity window or abandon your pending application:

• Step 1: Lock in your priority date. For categories requiring labor certification, your priority date is the date the Department of Labor accepts the application for processing, provided Form I-140 is filed with USCIS within 180 days of DOL approval. For categories without labor certification, it is the date USCIS accepts Form I-140 (or Form I-360 for EB-4 and Form I-526 for EB-5).
• Step 2: File Form I-140 (and check for concurrent filing). Your employer (or you, if self-petitioning) files Form I-140. If the monthly Visa Bulletin shows your category and country of chargeability is current (marked 'C' or with a cut-off date later than your priority date), you can file Form I-485 concurrently with Form I-140, while Form I-140 is pending, or after it is approved.
• Step 3: Assemble and file the Form I-485 packet. File Form I-485 along with your Form I-140 receipt or approval notice (Form I-797) if you are not filing concurrently. Include Form I-485 Supplement J to confirm the job offer remains valid. If you are filing concurrently, or self-petitioning under a National Interest Waiver or extraordinary ability, Supplement J is not required. Self-petitioners provide a signed statement of intent instead. Add your Form I-693 medical exam, two passport photos, a copy of a government ID, and your birth certificate. Include your passport pages with visa and admission stamps, Form I-94, and proof that you continuously maintained lawful status, unless exempt under INA 245(k) or 245(i). Include Form I-864 only if a US citizen or permanent resident relative filed the Form I-140 or owns 5 percent or more of the petitioning for-profit entity.
• Step 4: File for work and travel cards if needed. With a pending Form I-485, you can file Form I-765 for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and Form I-131 for an Advance Parole travel document. USCIS states that if you leave the United States while Form I-485 is pending without an advance parole document, you will generally have abandoned your application.
• Step 5: Attend your Application Support Center (ASC) biometrics appointment. USCIS will mail a notice for your fingerprints, photograph and signature, and you must sign an acknowledgment that your application was complete and true. Missing the ASC appointment without rescheduling or refusing to sign can result in denial.
• Step 6: Attend your interview (if scheduled) and respond to any Request for Evidence. If USCIS schedules an interview, bring originals of all documents submitted with Form I-485, including expired and unexpired passports and Forms I-94. If you move while waiting, report your new address to USCIS within 10 days.

Priority dates, the Visa Bulletin and retrogression

Even with an approved Form I-140, you cannot file Form I-485 until an immigrant visa number is available. Family-sponsored preference visas are limited to 226,000 per year and employment-based preference visas are limited to 140,000 per year, with extra limits on the percentage allotted to any single country of chargeability (usually your country of birth). When demand exceeds supply for your preference category and country, a queue forms and the Department of State sets a cut-off date in its monthly Visa Bulletin.

The Visa Bulletin includes two charts: the Application Final Action Dates chart and the Dates for Filing Applications chart. Unless USCIS posts on its Adjustment of Status Filing Charts webpage that you may use the Dates for Filing chart for that month, you must use the Application Final Action Dates chart to see if you can file Form I-485. Your visa is available when your priority date (printed on your Form I-797 Notice of Action) is earlier than the cut-off date, or when the chart shows 'C' for current. If the chart shows 'U', visas are temporarily unavailable.

Sometimes a priority date that is current one month moves backward to an earlier date the next month. This is called visa retrogression, and it happens when the annual limit for a category or country is exhausted or nearly exhausted for the month. A new supply of visa numbers opens on October 1 when the new federal fiscal year begins, which usually, though not always, returns cut-off dates to where they stood before.

Changing jobs or categories while Form I-485 is pending

You do not always have to stay in the exact same job or preference category while waiting on a long green card queue. Under section 204(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, your approved Form I-140 remains valid even if you switch to a new job or a new employer, provided two conditions are met: your Form I-485 has remained unadjudicated for 180 days or more, and you submit evidence on Form I-485 Supplement J that the new job is in the same or a similar occupational classification as the job in the original Form I-140.

You can also request in writing to transfer the underlying basis of your pending Form I-485 to a different employment-based immigrant category based on another Form I-140 (for example, moving between EB-2 and EB-3) without filing a new Form I-485 or paying a new adjustment fee. To qualify, you must have continuously maintained eligibility for adjustment of status, your original Form I-485 must still be pending, you must be eligible for the new category, and a visa must be immediately available in that new category. If transferring to an already approved Form I-140, submit your written request with Form I-485 Supplement J to the centralized USCIS Supplement J box in Dallas or Lewisville, Texas. If transferring to a pending or newly filed Form I-140, Supplement J is not needed.

Adding your spouse and children to an employment-based green card

Your spouse and your unmarried children under 21 years of age can apply for green cards with you as derivative applicants. Each derivative family member files their own Form I-485 together with your Form I-485, while yours is still pending, or after yours is approved (as long as you remain a lawful permanent resident and the marriage or parent-child relationship existed when you adjusted status or were admitted as a permanent resident).

Each derivative applicant must be physically present in the United States after being inspected and admitted or paroled, and must have an immigrant visa immediately available when filing and at final decision. Along with their own identity, status and medical forms (Form I-693 must be included when required or the Form I-485 may be rejected), a spouse or child submits relationship proof such as a marriage certificate, birth certificate or adoption decree, plus a copy of your Form I-797 receipt or approval notice for Form I-140 and Form I-485.

Practice example

You changed employers while your Form I-485 was pending. How does your new role match the job on your approved Form I-140, and how have you maintained lawful status?

For a strong, honest answer, state the exact date you filed Form I-485 and confirm that it had been pending for 180 days or more before you ported to your new employer under INA section 204(j). Describe your new job title, core duties and occupational classification in plain words so they match the Form I-485 Supplement J signed by you and your new employer. Next, walk cleanly through your timeline of lawful nonimmigrant status since your last admission. Have your original documents organized and ready to hand over: your unexpired and expired passports, every Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Record and admission stamp, your Form I-797 approval notice for the underlying Form I-140, and your receipt notice or copy of the completed Supplement J.

At a Form I-485 interview, the USCIS officer checks under oath that you continuously maintained lawful status and that your job offer remains valid or qualifies for job portability in the same or a similar occupational classification after 180 days.

This is interview practice, not legal advice. For questions about your own case, talk to an immigration attorney. Visaful is not affiliated with the U.S. government or the Department of State.