H-1B to Green Card: Process, Backlog and Wait Times in 2026

The H-1B to green card route is the path most H-1B workers take toward permanent residence in the United States, and for many of them it is the longest stretch of their immigration journey. The visa is temporary — six years in most cases. The queue it feeds into is not bounded in the same way, and for applicants born in a few specific countries it now runs longer than a working career.

This guide covers the H-1B to green card process stage by stage, what a priority date actually is, where the categories stood in the September 2026 Visa Bulletin, how to hold status while waiting, and which routes genuinely shorten the wait. It assumes you already hold H-1B status; if you are earlier than that, start with the H-1B visa guide. For the other four routes to permanent residence, see the US green card overview.

How the H-1B to green card process works

Most cases run through the employment-based preference system. Two categories carry the bulk of them: EB-2, for positions requiring an advanced degree or its equivalent, and EB-3, for positions requiring a bachelor’s degree or two years of training or experience. The wider set of employment-based preference categories also includes EB-1, EB-4 and EB-5. In a standard EB-2 or EB-3 case the employer drives the first three stages and the worker only files at the end.

Table 1: The four stages of the H-1B to green card process

Stage	What it establishes	Who files	Typical duration
Prevailing wage determination	The minimum salary the Department of Labor requires for the role	Employer, to DOL	About 187 days
Recruitment and PERM labor certification	That no qualified US worker is available for the position	Employer, to DOL	About 141 days of recruitment, then about 483 days of adjudication
Form I-140 immigrant petition	The preference category and the priority date	Employer, to USCIS	About 234 days, or 15 business days with premium processing
Form I-485 adjustment of status	Permanent residence itself	Worker, to USCIS	About 210 days
Averages from a Cato Institute analysis of Department of Labor and USCIS data for the second quarter of FY2025, totalling about 3.4 years. Excludes the wait for a visa number, which is separate and, for backlogged countries, longer than every stage above combined.

Stage one: the prevailing wage determination

The employer asks the Department of Labor to set the prevailing wage for the role in that occupation and location, and the offered salary must meet that rate. As of 7 August 2026, the Department was issuing determinations for requests received in April 2026.

Stage two: PERM labor certification

The employer then runs a prescribed recruitment campaign to test whether a qualified, willing and available US worker exists for the role. If none is found, it files Form ETA-9089 and the Department certifies the position. The date that filing is received becomes the priority date — the queue ticket that governs everything afterwards. Cases entering analyst review in July 2026 had taken an average of 372 calendar days; audited cases take longer.

Stage three: Form I-140

With PERM certified, the employer files Form I-140, which fixes the preference category and confirms the priority date. The fee is $715 on paper or $665 online, and most employers also owe an Asylum Program Fee of $600, which is reduced to $300 for employers with 25 or fewer full-time employees and is waived for non-profits. Premium processing costs $2,965 as of 1 March 2026 and returns a decision on a PERM-based I-140 within 15 business days.

Stage four: adjustment of status

Form I-485 is the application for permanent residence itself — the only stage the worker files personally, and the one that later opens the route to US citizenship. It costs $1,440 on paper or $1,390 online, and can carry Form I-765 for work authorisation and Form I-131 for advance parole. It cannot be filed until a visa number is available under the chart USCIS designates for that month. Applicants outside the United States use consular processing and Form DS-260 instead.

What a priority date means for an H-1B to green card case

A priority date is not an appointment. It is a position in a queue, set by the day the PERM application was filed. Each month the State Department publishes a Visa Bulletin with two charts. Final Action Dates say which priority dates can be approved for permanent residence. Dates for Filing say which can submit the application, and usually run further ahead. USCIS states each month which chart employment-based adjustment applicants may use; in September 2026 it was Final Action Dates.

A category marked “C” is current, meaning no queue at all. A category marked “U” is unavailable, meaning the annual allocation is exhausted and nothing further will be issued until the fiscal year resets on 1 October. Dates can also move backwards, which is called retrogression.

Table 2: H-1B to green card priority dates, September 2026 Visa Bulletin

Category	All other countries	China	India	India (Dates for Filing)
EB-1	Current	1 July 2023	15 October 2022	1 December 2023
EB-2	Current	1 September 2021	Unavailable	15 January 2015
EB-3 professionals and skilled workers	1 September 2024	1 January 2022	1 January 2014	15 January 2015
EB-3 other workers	1 April 2022	1 May 2019	1 January 2014	15 January 2015
EB-5 unreserved	Current	1 December 2016	Unavailable	1 May 2024
Final Action Dates unless the column says otherwise. Source: US Department of State Visa Bulletin for September 2026. “Unavailable” means the annual limit for that category and country has been reached for the fiscal year. USCIS directed employment-based adjustment applicants to use the Final Action Dates chart in September 2026. The same bulletin warned that EB-1 India may also become unavailable before the fiscal year ends. Dates are republished monthly and can retrogress; all rows reset on 1 October 2026.

Why the H-1B to green card wait is uneven across countries

Two people doing the same job at the same company can face wildly different waits, and one statutory rule explains it. No country may take more than 7% of the combined family-sponsored and employment-based preference totals. For the 2026 fiscal year that came to 28,862 visas, set against a worldwide employment-based limit of 186,317 — itself well above the statutory floor of 140,000, because unused family-sponsored numbers fall across into the employment categories. The 7% ceiling is identical for every country, so one sending a hundred applicants and one sending a hundred thousand draw on the same allocation.

Chargeability follows country of birth, not citizenship. Acquiring another passport does not move an applicant out of the queue. India accounts for the great majority of H-1B petitions, so the H-1B to green card queue for India-born applicants absorbs demand many times its allocation. A Cato Institute analysis using March 2023 data put the employment-based backlog at about 1.8 million people, roughly 1.1 million of them born in India. Attempts to remove the country ceiling have repeatedly stalled — the fullest account is the history of the S.386 bill.

Where the H-1B to green card queues stood in September 2026

Two things in the September 2026 bulletin matter more than the rest. EB-2 India was again marked unavailable, as it had been in August: the annual limit had been reached, and no further EB-2 numbers would go to India-chargeable applicants before the fiscal year resets on 1 October 2026. And EB-3 India sat at 1 January 2014, unmoved. The August bulletin had projected EB-2 India returning at around 15 July 2014, or earlier, when the new fiscal year opened; the September bulletin carried no equivalent projection, so that figure is the last published estimate rather than a current one.

That combination inverts advice that circulated widely between 2020 and early 2024. In that period EB-3 India ran ahead of EB-2 India, and thousands filed a second I-140 in EB-3 using the same PERM certification and retained priority date — a manoeuvre known as downgrading. Since the April 2026 bulletin, when EB-2 India advanced 303 days in a single month, EB-2 has been the more advanced of the two, so downgrading now moves an applicant backwards. Much of the H-1B to green card advice still ranking in search results predates that reversal.

Holding status when the H-1B to green card wait outlasts six years

H-1B status is capped at six years. Because the queue routinely outlasts that, the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 — AC21 — provides two ways to keep extending. They are less alternatives than successive stages of one H-1B to green card case: section 106(a) covers the period while the case is being built, section 104(c) the period after the I-140 is approved and the real wait begins.

Table 3: Extending H-1B status during the H-1B to green card wait

Provision	What it requires	Length granted	Main condition
AC21 section 106(a)	A PERM application or Form I-140 filed at least 365 days earlier. It does not have to be approved — pending is enough.	One year at a time, renewable	Ends if the PERM application or I-140 is denied
AC21 section 104(c)	An approved Form I-140 in EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3, and a priority date that is not current because of per-country or worldwide limits	Up to three years at a time, renewable	Once a visa number becomes available, adjustment or an immigrant visa should generally be sought within one year
Recapture of time abroad	Documented full days spent physically outside the United States while in H-1B status	Those days added back to the six-year total	Requires travel records; independent of any green card case
AC21 is the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000. Extensions under both provisions may be granted repeatedly. Summary only — individual cases turn on their own facts.

Two practical points sit alongside the table. Extensions must be filed before the current I-94 expires, and once a timely extension is pending the worker may generally keep working for the same employer for up to 240 days while it is adjudicated. Separately, any full day spent outside the United States while in H-1B status can be recaptured and added back to the six years, provided the days are documented.

One condition on section 104(c) is easy to miss. Once a visa number does become available, the applicant is generally expected to apply for adjustment of status or an immigrant visa within a year. Letting that year pass without filing can cost eligibility for further extensions under the provision.

Changing jobs during the H-1B to green card process

Three separate protections govern job changes, and they switch on at different moments. Conflating them is a common and expensive error.

H-1B portability is the first: a new employer files a fresh petition, and the worker may generally begin work once USCIS receives it. This protects the visa, not the H-1B to green card case underneath it.

Priority date retention is the second. An I-140 that has been approved for at least 180 days generally survives the sponsoring employer withdrawing it, and the priority date it established can be carried to a new employer’s petition. Leave before that mark and a withdrawal can take the approval — and the queue position — with it. The PERM certification is not portable; the new employer repeats that stage.

AC21 portability under section 106(c) is the third and strongest. Once Form I-485 has been pending 180 days or more, the applicant may move to a new employer or position in the same or a similar occupational classification and keep the pending application, confirming the move on Form I-485 Supplement J. USCIS does not decide “same or similar” by matching occupation codes; it weighs duties, required experience and education, wage level and occupational outlook together, case by case.

What the H-1B to green card wait means for families

Spouses and unmarried children under 21 hold H-4 status. A spouse may apply for work authorisation only once the H-1B worker has an approved I-140 or an AC21 extension beyond six years — so the household’s second income is gated on the H-1B to green card case reaching stage three. The mechanics are in the guide to H-4 EAD work authorisation. Since 30 October 2025 automatic extensions no longer apply to those renewals, which makes filing early a necessity rather than a preference.

Children are the harder problem. A child who turns 21 before the family reaches the front of the queue ages out of the parent’s application. The Child Status Protection Act subtracts the time the I-140 was pending from the child’s age at the moment a visa becomes available, and requires the family to seek permanent residence within a year of that moment. From 15 August 2025, USCIS has calculated the availability date using Final Action Dates rather than the earlier and more generous Dates for Filing chart — a change that narrows CSPA protection for exactly the families whose queues are longest.

Routes that can shorten the H-1B to green card wait

There is no way to buy a better position in an EB-2 or EB-3 queue, but there are ways out of it. Moving to EB-1 is the most direct: EB-1 has its own annual allocation, and for India-chargeable applicants it stood at 15 October 2022 in September 2026 — roughly eight years ahead of EB-3. Two routes let an applicant petition with no employer and no PERM certification at all, extraordinary ability and the national interest waiver, and both are set out in the comparison of EB-1A and EB-2 NIW self-petition routes. Anyone already holding an O-1 has most of that evidence assembled, which is why the O-1 to green card route runs the same way.

That advantage carries a warning, though. The September 2026 bulletin cautioned that heavy EB-1 demand from India-chargeable applicants might make the category unavailable before the fiscal year ends. The eight-year gap is real, but anyone planning an H-1B to green card move around it should check the current month rather than rely on it staying open.

Cross-chargeability is the second, and it costs nothing. A married couple may charge the application to either spouse’s country of birth, so where one spouse was born outside the backlogged countries the whole family can use that country’s queue — which for most of the world is current or close to it.

The third is administrative discipline. Keeping the I-140 approved, the H-1B extended, the H-4 EAD current and the family’s CSPA position monitored costs nothing and preserves everything; most of the damage done to long-backlogged H-1B to green card cases is procedural rather than substantive.

What could change in the H-1B to green card system

Less than the volume of commentary suggests. The Department of Homeland Security’s “Petition for Immigrant Worker Reforms” rule, which would have rewritten parts of the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 regulations, was withdrawn on 12 November 2025 before it was ever published for comment, and has since come off the regulatory agenda. Legislation to remove the per-country ceiling has been introduced repeatedly since S.386 expired in January 2021 and has not passed.

The nearer-term movements are mechanical. Priority dates reset on 1 October each year when a fresh allocation becomes available, which is why categories marked unavailable in August and September often reopen sharply in October. On the visa side rather than the green card side, 2026 brought the shift to wage-weighted lottery selection, a wider set of H-1B rule changes, and the $100,000 fee that courts vacated in June 2026, which is not being collected while the appeal proceeds.

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