If you are married to a US citizen and both of you live in the United States, you can apply for your green card (Lawful Permanent Residency) immediately after your marriage. There is no mandatory waiting period before you can submit your application.
Immigrants that have a valid work visa, like an H-1B or an L-1 visa are allowed to continue working in the United States while their green card application is being processed. Otherwise, they must obtain an Employment Authorization Document or EAD (work permit) before they can start working.
The 90-day rule states that non-immigrant visa holders who marry U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents or apply for adjustment of status within 90 days of arriving in the U.S. are automatically presumed to have misrepresented their original nonimmigrant intentions.
You must include all your family members even if they are not coming to Canada with you. This includes: spouse or partner.
If you are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, then as soon as you and your foreign-born spouse are married, you can file a Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130) with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Your US citizen spouse would complete form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative. You would complete form I-485, Application to Adjust Status and Register Lawful Permanent Residence. Both of these forms require supporting forms and evidence; read the instructions closely.
- The processing time for U.S. citizens filing Form I-130 for a spouse beneficiary ranges from 13-54.5 months. - The processing time for legal permanent residents filing Form I-130 for a spouse beneficiary ranges from 32-67.5 months.
If you are married to a US citizen and both of you live in the United States, you can apply for your green card (Lawful Permanent Residency) immediately after your marriage. There is no mandatory waiting period before you can submit your application.
Permanent residency allows both spouses to share their lives in the U.S. without facing legal problems related to immigration. The marriage green card processing time is an approximate average of 10.5 months as of December 2024.