Reviewed by André Matias, Esq., Principal Attorney
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Rockville is the Montgomery County seat, which means a good number of people reading this are already downtown for something else — a court date, a filing, a county office. It is worth knowing what part of an immigration case actually happens near you, and what part does not happen anywhere in particular.
What is local, and what is not
The legal test is not local. Adjustment of status is federal, and a case filed from Rockville is decided under the same rules as one filed from Boise. If a page suggests your county changes the answer, it is selling you something.
What Rockville does determine is the practical shape of the case:
- Your interview. USCIS assigns your field office by ZIP code. Rather than print an answer that may be stale by the time you read it, check the USCIS Office Locator for your address.
- Your biometrics. Fingerprints and a photograph, usually at the Baltimore Application Support Center — roughly an hour up I-270 and I-95. Worth planning around, because a biometrics appointment is not something you reschedule casually.
- If a case ever reaches a courtroom. Maryland's immigration courts sit in Baltimore and Hyattsville; the current list is on the EOIR court listing. Most adjustment cases never go near one.
If you came on a work or student visa
If you arrived on an employment or student visa — including the ones tied to the research and biotech employers along the I-270 corridor — and you are now married to a U.S. citizen, your case turns on status history more than on paperwork. How you entered, whether there was a gap between a graduation and a job, whether an employer's petition lapsed: those are the facts that decide whether adjustment is available at all, and they are worth establishing before anything is filed.
USCIS publishes live processing times per office and form type, and they move. Check the current figure for your own office on the USCIS processing times tool.
Government fees
Adjustment of status carries several government filing fees, and they change. Confirm current amounts on the USCIS Fee Schedule (Form G-1055) or the USCIS Fee Calculator.
These are government filing fees only. They are not Altius Law's attorney fees.
Talk to us
If you want to know whether you are eligible before a form is submitted, that is the conversation to have first.