An approved I-140 is not a green card. It establishes that you qualify for the category. Turning that into permanent residence happens one of two ways, and the decision is often made by default — by where the person happened to be — rather than on the merits of either route.
What each one is
Adjustment of status happens inside the United States. You file Form I-485 with USCIS, remain in the country while it is pending, and if approved you become a permanent resident without leaving. The fee is US$ 1,440 on paper or US$ 1,390 online for applicants aged 14 and over, under the fee schedule current on 26 October 2026.
Consular processing happens abroad. The approved petition goes to the National Visa Center, documents and fees are handled there, and the case concludes with an interview at a U.S. consulate. You enter the United States as a permanent resident.
Both end in the same place. What differs is where you are, what you can do, and what you cannot do while you wait.
What adjustment gives you, and what it costs you
While an I-485 is pending, you can apply for employment authorization and for advance parole. Those are what allow working and travelling during the wait — and they are separate applications with their own processing times, not automatic benefits that begin on the filing date.
The constraint is the serious part: travelling without advance parole generally abandons the pending application. Not delays it. Abandons it. This catches people with entirely ordinary reasons to leave — a funeral, a sick parent, a contract abroad — and it is among the most expensive avoidable mistakes in the process.
Adjustment also requires being eligible to adjust. 8 CFR 245.1 sets out who may and the bars that apply, and status history matters here in ways that are specific to each person's record.
What consular processing gives you, and what it costs you
You are not tied to staying. For someone who lives and works outside the United States, has a business to run or family to be near, that is not a minor convenience — it is the whole point.
The cost is control. The case moves on the National Visa Center's schedule and the consulate's calendar, the interview happens where you are, and the timing is not something you can accelerate from your side. For someone who needs to be in the United States and working soon, that is the wrong shape.
How the decision actually gets made
Honestly: by accident, most of the time. Someone already in the United States adjusts because they are here. Someone abroad goes consular because they are there. Often that is the right answer anyway.
It stops being the right answer when:
- you are in the United States but need to travel in the next year, and advance parole timing does not fit;
- you are abroad but need to start working in the United States quickly;
- your status history raises a question about eligibility to adjust;
- family members are in different countries, which splits the two routes between people who would rather move together.
Each of those is a reason to choose deliberately, and each depends on facts that belong to your case rather than to a general page. The attorney of record decides this one with your actual dates in front of them.
Where to look next
The costs of each step, separated into the three bills, are in what an EB-1A actually costs. The catalogue pages for the self-petition categories that get you to this point are EB-1A and EB-2 NIW, and the I-485 appears on the pricing page as a separate line because it is a separate piece of work.