Sponsoring your spouse
Sponsoring your spouse for a green card
Potential Issues That Could Result in Denial of a Marriage Case
Even if a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident spouse files an immigration case to sponsor his or her spouse, it does not guarantee that the immigrant will be eligible for a green card. This is due to many possible factors including:
- how the immigrant entered the country (illegally or with a visa and the type of visa upon entry);
- the immigrant’s immigration history and past entries and stays in the U.S.;
- the immigrant’s prior misrepresentations to any CIS, INS, or DHS agent at the border, in application for a visa, or within the U.S. to gain an immigration benefit;
- insufficient documentation to show CIS that the marriage is bona fide (i.e., a marriage that was entered into for love, not immigration purposes); and
- a finding by the CIS interviewing green card officer that the immigrant engaged in visa fraud upon entry into the U.S. or at any time in the past.
- a finding by CIS that the immigrant can easily interview for their green card at a consulate abroad and haven’t shown extraordinary reasons why s/he needs to adjust status in the U.S. instead (Read more about Trump 2.0’s heightened discretion policy)
These are just a few examples of possible grounds for denial of what a immigrant or U.S. citizen spouse may feel is a straight-forward marriage-based green card case.
Understanding the Basics of Sponsorship:
What to Know If You are a U.S. Citizen:
Deciding to sponsor a fiancé or spouse for a green card (lawful permanent resident status) can ensure that newlyweds are not separated due to the restrictions of U.S. immigration law and can start focusing on building the rest of their lives together. Unfortunately, though, marriage to a U.S. citizen does not mean that the immigrant (alien) is automatically a lawful permanent resident or even has the legal right to stay in or enter the U.S. once s/he marries a U.S. citizen.
- Your immigrant spouse does not have to wait in line for a visa
Family-based immigrants are admitted to the U.S. either as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or through the family preference system (the visa quota system). If a non-citizen is married to a U.S. citizen, the non-citizen will be considered an “immediate relative”?. Immediate Relatives are:
- Spouses of U.S. citizens;
- Unmarried minor children of U.S. citizens; and
- Parents of U.S. citizens.
There is no cap on the number of visas available each year for immediate relatives, so there is no competition with other applicants in this category and thus, not a significant backlog in case processing.
What to Know If You are a Lawful Permanent Resident:
Spouses of Lawful Permanent Residents are subject to the Visa Preference System and the backlogs the system creates. There are a limited number of visas available every year under the Family Preference system. Under current immigration law, there are only 87,900 visas allocated to spouses of Lawful Permanent Residents and minor children every year. Thus right now, for most countries, there is a backlog in available visa numbers for this category. The backlog is much worse for India, Mexico, and the Philippines. And, without a visa number available for new filings, a spouse of a U.S. legal permanent resident could remain years outside the U.S. until s/he is allowed to immigrate based on marriage to a Lawful Permanent Resident.
- If a visa number is not immediately available, the LPR spouse must file an Immigrant Visa petition for their immigrant spouse who resides abroad, with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services in the U.S.
- Once approved and once an immigrant visa number is available, only then can the immigrant spouse apply at the consulate to finalize the green card process.
If the immigrant spouse lives in the U.S., the immigrant visa must still be applied for with US CIS but the spouse may have to depart the U.S. when the visa number becomes available, because the spouse may be ineligible to apply directly in the U.S. for a green card if s/he entered the U.S. illegally or worked without authorization.
Travel outside the U.S. is risky for someone who has been in the U.S. illegally, even if married to a LPR, because the act of leaving the U.S. to pick up the immigrant visa that leads to the green card from the consulate, could trigger the 3 or 10 year bar, not allowing the immigrant to re-enter the U.S. for years.
These are complex issues that are best addressed before any paperwork is filed for your immigrant spouse, to ensure that the immigrant spouse is actually eligible to receive a green card before exposing him or her to CIS and losing money and time in the process.
FAQ: Sponsoring Your Spouse for a Green Card
What do I do if my spouse is currently inside the U.S.?
If the non-citizen spouse currently lives in the U.S., s/he may be able to obtain lawful permanent residency status (a “green card”), through the process called “Adjustment of Status” (AOS) in the U.S. without having to leave the U.S. and pick up an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad. Another benefit of this AOS process is that a work card is filed at the same time as the AOS application, resulting in the immigrant’s ability to work wherever s/he can find a job in the U.S. within months of filing.
Can my immigrant spouse travel outside the U.S. while a green card case is pending?
If the immigrant has no prior overstays of the previously granted permission of time in the U.S., then s/he may also file for a special travel document to allow the immigrant to travel outside the U.S. while the AOS case is being decided and before a green card interview has been scheduled. Otherwise, if the immigrant travels without this special travel document, CIS will consider the AOS case to be “abandoned”, will deny the case, and will likely not allow the immigrant spouse to re-enter the U.S. for some time.
It may not be safe to travel even on advance parole. Even if an immigrant qualifies for an advance parole international travel document (to use while the adjustment of status case is pending), it may not be wise to use it and travel abroad even for a temporary period. If your spouse has ever overstayed their visa, s/he may be at risk for triggering the 3 or 10 year bar for unlawful presence when s/eh departs the U.S.
- In August 2026, the Board of Immigration Appeals reversed the ability to use Advance Parole (131) for international travel without triggering the 10 year bar for unlawful presence upon departure from the U.S. For the last 14 years, anyone who left on Advance Parole was treated as if they never legally departed (i.e., were still in the US even though they had physically left) so that person did not trigger the 10 year bar to entry when they exited the US. The BIA recently overturned the case that established that.
So, for now, it would be dangerous for any immigrant to attempt to travel on an advance parole if s/he have ever had 180 days or more without legal status in the US from April 1, 1997 until now. S/he would risk not being able to return to the US until an unlawful presence waiver is approved, which could take years. So, until and if their adjustment case is approved, travel may not be a good idea.
How long does it take my spouse to receive a green card once the case is filed?
How long a green card takes to be approved depends a lot on the processing times and backlogs at the local district office where the green card interview will likely take place. Some offices take 6 months, some up to 2 years. The green card interview will take place and be dictated by the USCIS field office that is nearest the residence of where the I-485 applicant files. Here is a link to the list of updated processing times by office.
Can I still file for my spouse if s/he Entered the U.S. Illegally?
A immigrant has entered the U.S. illegally if s/he was not inspected by a CIS Officer and asked to show identification and visa for traveling into the U.S. at the point of entry into the U.S. Generally, if a immigrant entered the U.S. illegally, s/he will not be able to apply for Adjustment of Status and receive the green card or lawful permanent residency status because of that unlawful entry. Instead, unless an exception applies, the immigrant’s U.S. citizen spouse must file an Immigrant Visa petition in the U.S. and once approved, the petition is forwarded to the consulate located closest to the immigrant’s foreign address and the immigrant must pick up the visa and green card abroad, from this consulate.
This is obviously much less convenient than being able to obtain a green card in the U.S. through a CIS office.
Further, the moment a immigrant who has been in the U.S. illegally for 180 days or longer leaves the U.S., s/he triggers an unlawful presence bar to re-entry. These 3 and 10 year bars hold that the immigrant will be denied re-entry into the U.S. despite the marriage to a U.S. citizen because of his or her previous unlawful/illegal stay in the U.S. There are limited exceptions or waivers available to the enforcement of these bars of re-entry but waivers, especially, are very difficult to get approved. Thus, it is crucial before a nonimmigrant leaves the U.S. that his or her immigration history be analyzed by an immigration attorney to determine if the huge risk is truly worth the potential benefit.
The other two options for avoiding the bars of re-entry are to stay in the U.S. and try to take advantage of a past amnesty-type statute provision called INA 245(i) or file for an extreme hardship waiver* based on the marriage, claiming that the U.S. citizen spouse will suffer extreme hardship if his or her spouse is forced to remain outside the US and serve these years abroad. These, like the waivers for the 3 and 10 year bars, are very difficult cases to prove, considering how many waivers like this are filed every year and the skepticism of many CIS and Immigration court personnel about what constitutes extreme hardship. Whether a immigrant spouse qualifies for either exception to the unlawful presence rules to be able to attain a green card in the U.S. is a case by case basis and should be reviewed with an experienced immigration attorney.
* WARNING: It has been a trend among some attorneys who want a potential client’s money on the underlying AOS case, to charge a very low rate for an extreme hardship waiver in very difficult cases with little compelling evidence. Be weary about exposing your spouse who is out of lawful immigration status to CIS by filing a green card case if the case will ultimately depend on the merits of the extreme hardship waiver, if the attorney cannot explain how the facts in your case are compelling (mere hardship and loss of togetherness, a business, relocation, separation, by itself is not enough for extreme hardship!). Be weary that if a lawyer is charging you, say $1500 for a waiver, there is no way that lawyer is going to be putting much time into your case. Unfortunately, you will find even with lawyers, that you tend to get what you pay for.
What happens to my spouse once s/he has received a green card? How long can she stay in the U.S.?
If the two of you have been married for more than 2 years by the time the green card interview is scheduled, then the immigrant spouse will be issued a green card (lawful permanent residence card) for 10 years, and is easily renewable at the end of that 10 year period. If the two of you continue to reside together as husband and wife, then your immigrant spouse will be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship 3 years after s/he received her green card.
What do I do if my spouse is currently outside the U.S:
Getting your fiancé here: The fiancé visa
If you are engaged – but not yet married – to a immigrant but are not yet married, you may sponsor him or her for a fiance visa. The fiancé visa is a temporary visa that allows your future spouse to enter the U.S. to marry you and reside with you in the U.S. If you are already married to a immigrant, you cannot apply for the fiancé visa for him or her. The fiancé visa is applied for by the sponsoring U.S. citizen with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS) in the United States. Once CIS approves the petition, the case is transferred to the consulate nearest the immigrant fiancé’s foreign address. The consulate will then arrange for the sponsored immigrant fiancé to have a medical exam by an approved physician and interview at the consulate for the fiancé visa. Upon issuance of the fiancé visa and entry into the U.S., the immigrant must marry the sponsoring U.S. citizen fiancé within 90 days of entry. Read more about fiance visas.
Deciding whether to marry a immigrant in the U.S. or in another country
When a marriage takes place outside of the U.S., it will be difficult for the immigrant spouse to enter the U.S. as s/he once did, i.e., on a tourist visa or other temporary visa, instead of on a K-3 visa or until an immigrant visa is applied for in the U.S., then approved and finally issued in a foreign consulate. The reason that re-entry into the U.S. without a K-3 or immigrant visa is difficult for a immigrant is that when a immigrant marries a U.S. citizen, that shows CIS that the immigrant has the permanent intent to stay in the U.S. and not return to their home country. Yet, when the immigrant tries to enter on a tourist visa or other temporary visa, the immigrant is telling CIS that s/he plans to stay only for a short period in the U.S. This conflicting temporary v. permanent intent problem (commonly referred to as “dual intent”) usually results in CIS concluding that the immigrant committed “visa fraud”. Further, if a port of entry CIS officer discovers that the immigrant is married to a U.S. citizen when the immigrant tries to enter on a tourist or other temporary visa, the officer will be likely to conclude that the immigrant will overstay their visa and live permanently in the U.S. because of the existence of a U.S. citizen spouse giving the immigrant good reason to stay in the U.S.
Because of this and due to potentially longer processing times with immigrant visas and the K-3, many couples decide to marry within the U.S. to take advantage of the usually faster Adjustment of Status process instead of waiting for consular processing. Many times, our client couples prefer to legally marry in the U.S. but then have a renewal of vows or another ceremony (often called a religious ceremony) for friends and family abroad, so they can start the immigration process for the immigrant spouse as soon as possible while the immigrant spouse is in the U.S.
Regardless, where you decide to legally marry (not necessarily a religious ceremony or even a wedding, perhaps just a justice of the peace), could significantly change your options and processing times and what path you choose. It would be best to discuss your wedding plans with a qualified immigration attorney to decide what path is best for your situation and the consequences and benefits of marriage outside and inside the U.S.
Filing for Your Spouse Who is Abroad – the Immigrant Visa Process
Once you are married to your immigrant spouse, you will have to apply for an immigrant visa and provide all supporting documentation for that application with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services in the U.S. Once CIS approves the petition, the case is transferred to the National Visa Center of the Department of State for continued processing. Once a visa number is assigned to the case and final documentation received, the case is transferred to the consulate nearest the immigrant spouse’s foreign address, which will arrange for the spouse to be interviewed (much like a green card interview in the U.S.). Assuming all goes well, the spouse will be issued a green card in his or her passport upon entry into the U.S. The processing time for this entire process can take 1 – 2 years, depending on which state the U.S. citizen spouse resides in and then the timeline at the particular consulate.
There are a few exceptions to this process, that allow a couple to save months of processing time so as not to be separated for long periods. If time is a concern and before you try to cut corners yourself in the immigration process, consult an attorney right away, so as not to make any decisions that could ruin your spouse’s chances for a green card. Read more about consular processing.
K-3 temporary visa
The K-3 visa was created in response to the long processing time it can take for a foreign spouse to be issued a green card for entry into the U.S. A person may receive a K-3 visa if that person is already married to a U.S. citizen, has a pending Immigrant Visa filed by their U.S. citizen spouse at U.S. CIS, and seeks to enter the United States to await the approval of the petition and subsequent lawful permanent resident status. This visa must still be applied for with CIS and once approved, must be sent to the consulate nearest the foreign immigrant’s spouse for issuance.
What happens to my spouse once s/he has received a green card?
If the two of you have been married for more than 2 years by the time the green card interview is scheduled, then the immigrant spouse will be issued a green card (lawful permanent residence card) for 10 years, and is easily renewable at the end of that 10 year period. If the two of you continue to reside together as husband and wife, then your immigrant spouse will be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship 3 years after s/he received her green card ? usually received at the green card interview.
