A handover method and apparatus at a link layer of a wireless LAN according to the IEEE 802.11 standard are provided to minimize a handover latency. The handover method is performed in a mobile station moving from one subnet to another subnet, each subnet being managed by one of a plurality of access points. Channels available to the mobile station are selectively scanned based on information regarding one and more access points which are estimated to be present in a communication area of the mobile station, and a handover is performed to one of the access points based on the scanning result.