AOS Checklist for K-1 Holders
You entered on a K-1, you married the petitioner inside the 90 days, and now you adjust status. This is what goes in that packet, in one checkable list. Print it, gather against it, check it before you mail. Free, no signup, no email required.
Sourced from the USCIS instructions for Forms I-485, I-765, I-864, I-693 and I-131, from USCIS’s own checklists of required initial evidence for the I-485 and I-765, and from the USCIS Policy Manual. Every group below links to the documents it comes from. Last checked against the live USCIS pages: .
- This is the K-1 path only: you entered on a K-1 visa and married the person who petitioned for you. If you married a U.S. citizen without entering on a K-1, your packet includes a Form I-130 and this list is not yours.
- Send copies, not originals, unless the form instructions specifically ask for an original.
- Any document in a language other than English needs a full English translation plus a signed certification from the translator confirming it is complete, accurate, and that they are competent to translate it.
- This checklist is informational and is not a form. Do not submit it. Check the current edition date on each actual form before you file.
Your ticks are saved in this browser, on this device only. Nothing is uploaded, so clearing your site data clears the list.
This checklist quotes no filing fees, on purpose. Fees change by regulation, and a figure copied onto a page eventually goes wrong with nothing here to show it. The current amount for each form lives on Form G-1055, USCIS Fee Schedule. The same goes for where to send it: USCIS routes adjustment packets to a lockbox by the applicant’s state of residence rather than by where you entered the country, and that address list is its own page which changes, so read it on the day you mail. Two of the sources above are USCIS’s own checklist pages, which describe themselves as “an optional tool” that “does not replace statutory, regulatory, and form instruction requirements”; they are quoted here because they are the only place USCIS names some of these items, not because they outrank the instructions. This list also covers the packet only, and says nothing about what happens after you file, because that is not a document you can gather.
Questions people ask about adjusting status after a K-1
Is the affidavit of support the I-134 or the I-864?
They swap places between the two stages, and that is the part people miss.
At the K-1 consular interview the form is the I-134, and some posts state outright that an I-864 is not required for a K visa. At adjustment of status the form is the I-864: the Policy Manual says "any applicant for adjustment of status based on a K nonimmigrant visa must submit a Form I-864."
So the I-134 filed for the interview does not carry over, and an I-134 filed with an I-485 is the wrong form. They are different documents with different rules, not two names for one thing.
Worth adding, because it causes a separate mistake: an affidavit of support is a document about the sponsor's income. It is not evidence that a relationship is genuine. The State Department's own interview guidance tells immigrant visa applicants not to bring the affidavit of support or the financial evidence submitted with it.
Sourced from USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 8, Part G, Chapter 6 and Form I-864 Instructions, edition 10/17/24, checked .
Do I need to file an I-130 as well?
No, not if you entered on a K-1 and married the person who petitioned for you. The I-485 instructions treat a person admitted as a K-1 nonimmigrant as its own filing category, resting on the approved I-129F rather than on a new petition.
The only relationship document the instructions add for a K-1 is a copy of the marriage certificate showing the marriage to the I-129F petitioner within the 90-day period.
Generic adjustment guides often show an I-130 and its fee, because that is the path for someone who married a U.S. citizen without entering on a K-1. It is a real requirement, for a different filing than yours.
Sourced from Form I-485 Instructions, edition 01/20/25, checked .
Do I need a new medical exam after entering on a K-1?
Usually not. The I-693 instructions say a K-1 who received a medical examination before admission is "not required to complete another immigration medical examination as long as you file your Form I-485 within one year" of that examination, where the panel physician found no Class A medical condition.
The one-year clock runs from the date of the overseas examination, not from your arrival.
The vaccination requirement still has to be met separately, and the instructions call that document the "vaccination record (DS 3025)". If it was properly completed and included as part of the overseas examination report, the officer may accept the panel physician's assessment. If it was not, the instructions say you "will need to have the Part 10. Vaccination Record completed by a designated civil surgeon," and submit Parts 1 to 5, 7 and 10 of Form I-693. That is a smaller appointment than a full examination.
One thing worth knowing about where that record lives. The Policy Manual says the overseas examination report "should already be in the applicant's A-file," and that if it is not there, the officer "should request the medical examination report through a Request for Evidence." The I-485 instructions separately warn that if you are required to submit a Form I-693 or a partial one such as the vaccination record and you do not, your Form I-485 may be rejected.
Sourced from Form I-693 Instructions, edition 01/20/25 and USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 8, Part B, Chapter 3, checked .
What happens if I leave the country while the I-485 is pending?
The I-131 instructions state that USCIS "generally will consider their Form I-485 abandoned if they leave the United States without first obtaining an Advance Parole Document."
The instructions do list exceptions, for certain H, L, K-3, K-4 and V nonimmigrants who can travel on a valid nonimmigrant visa without that consequence. K-1 is not on that list.
Advance parole is requested on Form I-131. It can go in with the packet or be filed on its own while the I-485 is pending, so declining it at filing time is not permanent. What it is not is something you can arrange after you have already left.
Sourced from Form I-131 Instructions, checked .
What counts as evidence of a bona fide marriage?
USCIS does not answer this at the adjustment stage. The checklist asks for the evidence and does not say what it is, and neither the Form I-485 instructions nor the adjustment chapters of the Policy Manual list categories.
It does answer it at a later stage. Form I-751 is the petition to remove conditions on residence, filed about two years after a green card is granted, and its instructions enumerate what USCIS looks for in a marriage entered in "good faith". The documents it names:
- Lease or mortgage contracts showing joint occupancy and/or ownership of a communal residence.
- Joint savings and checking accounts, with transaction history.
- Complete joint federal and state tax returns.
- Insurance policies showing the other spouse as the beneficiary.
- Joint utility bills.
- Joint installment or other loans.
- Birth certificates of children born during the marriage, if any.
- Affidavits sworn by at least two people who have personal knowledge of the marriage and relationship.
Two things about that list matter as much as the list itself. It is written for a different filing, two years later, so it is not a statement of what the I-485 requires. And USCIS states it is not a closed list: the documents "should include, but are not limited to, the following examples", and its fourth item is "other documents that you consider relevant to establish that your marriage was not entered for the purpose of evading U.S. immigration laws".
That fourth item is why photographs, messages and travel records are worth keeping even though no USCIS document lists them for this stage. They are admissible under the catch-all rather than named, and this page does not present them as requirements, because USCIS does not.
Sourced from Form I-751 Instructions, edition 04/01/24 and the USCIS Checklist of Required Initial Evidence for Form I-485, checked .
How does USCIS want the fees paid?
Not by check. USCIS states that it "no longer accepts payments made by personal or business check, money order, or cashier's check for forms filed by paper" unless you qualify for an exemption.
Paper filers pay by credit, debit or prepaid card using Form G-1450, or directly from a U.S. bank account using Form G-1650. USCIS recommends a separate payment for each benefit request, so an I-485 and an I-765 in one envelope means two authorizations rather than one combined amount.
One detail worth reading twice: USCIS says a package containing both types of payment form "may have to be rejected." Pick G-1450 or G-1650 and use the same one throughout.
This page quotes no amounts. The current fee for each form lives on Form G-1055, and it changes by regulation.
Sourced from the USCIS Filing Fees page, checked .
What happens if the payment is declined?
Your filing is rejected. USCIS does not try again. On cards: "We will reject your application, petition, or request if the card is declined, and we will not try to process your credit card payment a second time." On an ACH payment declined for any reason other than insufficient funds, USCIS says it "will not try to process the payment again" and will reject the request for lack of payment.
Insufficient funds is the single exception. USCIS resubmits an ACH payment to the institution one time, and says a second failure may mean the filing is rejected or denied.
So the checks worth doing are the ones about limits rather than balances. USCIS says to make sure a card's credit limit can cover the fee, and separately that an account's daily limit can cover it, which is its own ceiling.
There is also a bank-side block that catches people who have done everything else right. USCIS says some account owners "may have placed an account debit block to prevent unauthorized individuals from withdrawing funds using an ACH transaction," and that if you have one, "you must contact your bank and give them the appropriate USCIS agency location code (ALC) to unblock our transaction or 'whitelist' USCIS before you file." USCIS publishes a code for each lockbox on the same page.
Two more constraints from the same page. An ACH payment must come from a U.S. bank: "We cannot process an ACH transaction from a foreign bank." And if one card will not cover a fee, USCIS allows splitting a single benefit request across two cards using two Forms G-1450, as long as the amounts add up exactly, because an incorrect total is itself a rejection.
Sourced from the USCIS Filing Fees page, checked .
This is a checklist, not legal advice, and BonaVault isn't a law firm. Checking every box here doesn't guarantee anything about your case. It's here so you can see, at a glance, what USCIS actually asks for and what you've already gathered.
I'm building BonaVault, a tool that tracks this kind of evidence automatically across chats, photos, and documents, and exports it as one binder, not just a checklist. It's in development, and I'm going through the K-1 process myself.
Want to know when it opens? One email, when it's ready.