Adjusting Status? Tell the NVC or Lose Your Approved I-130

You have an approved I-130, your priority date is current, and you decided to adjust status inside the United States instead of interviewing at a consulate. Then the National Visa Center sends a letter warning that it will terminate your case because you never pursued the immigrant visa. Your approved petition is suddenly on life support, and the fix is simple if you move fast: tell the NVC you are adjusting.

This happens because the two halves of the government are not talking to each other. When an I-130 is approved for consular processing, it goes to the NVC, which waits for you to file the immigrant visa paperwork. If you filed an I-485 with USCIS instead, the NVC has no way to know that.

The clock is real. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1153(g), the State Department terminates the registration of anyone who fails to apply for an immigrant visa within one year of being notified that a visa is available. The NVC’s letter is that termination warning. Ignore it, and the approved I-130 that took years to get can be canceled.

Watch for the softer version of this letter too: an NVC email asking whether you are “still interested” in consular processing. It looks like a formality. It is not: leaving it unanswered is one of the ways the agency now kills an approved I-130.

Here is how to protect the petition:

• Notify the NVC in writing, immediately. State that you have filed for adjustment of status inside the United States and are not pursuing an immigrant visa abroad.
• Attach your I-485 receipt notice. Proof that you are adjusting is what stops the § 203(g) clock.
• Ask the NVC to return the approved I-130 to USCIS. That routes your file to the office that will actually adjudicate the adjustment.
• Answer every NVC letter or email. The “are you still interested?” message is a trap when ignored. Respond, with the same proof.

The frustrating part is how close these cases are to done, an approved petition, a current priority date, a pending I-485, and how easily a piece of unanswered mail undoes it. If you chose to adjust status rather than consular process, the one administrative step you cannot skip is telling the National Visa Center you did.