Everything About Marrying an American
Verified updates checked 3 October 2026
Consular route: the US citizen files Form I-130 for the spouse. After approval the case goes to the National Visa Center and then to an interview at the US embassy in the spouse’s country (Cairo for Egypt), with a medical exam.
Inside the US: if the foreign spouse is already in the US in a lawful way, the spouse may file Form I-485 to adjust status. Eligibility depends on how they entered, so check first.
Current fees (checked 3 Oct 2026)
- Form I-130, petition for the spouse: $675 on paper, $625 online. (The 2021 story in this article quotes about $600, which is out of date.)
- Form I-485, adjustment of status, if the spouse is inside the US: $1,440 on paper, $1,390 online.
- Immigrant visa application fee at the embassy (per person): $325.
- Affidavit of support review: $120 only when reviewed domestically. Form I-864 itself is $0 at USCIS.
- Form I-751: $750 on paper or $700 online. The current fee schedule does not add a $30 biometric fee for this form.
- Medical exam, translations and travel are extra and vary.
Paper filings: USCIS no longer accepts personal checks or money orders unless you qualify for an exception. Pay by card (G-1450) or bank transfer (G-1650).
On 21 January 2026 the State Department paused all immigrant visa issuance to nationals of 75 countries, including Egypt, over public benefits concerns. Interviews were still held, but no visas were issued. According to the State Department, as of 21 August 2026, following a court order in CLINIC v. Rubio, that pause is no longer in effect. The case is not finished, so the situation could change. Dual nationals with a valid passport from another country were exempt.
One of the easiest and most accessible routes to immigrating to America is marriage to a U.S. citizen. After the marriage is legally registered, the foreign spouse applies for residence. A conditional permanent resident receives a green card valid for two years, and must petition to remove conditions using I-751 within the 90 days before expiry. Citizenship is a later, separate process.
During this period you are entitled to all the benefits of a U.S. citizen except the right to run for office and to vote.
Sometimes a divorce happens. Many people imagine that once a couple divorces, the residency simply ends and immigration will deport the divorced spouse. That is not true. If immigration is satisfied that the marriage was real and was not entered into just to obtain residency and then citizenship, your case is looked at on its own and completed individually: you are given the permanent green card and can then go on to citizenship. Of course, your whole file will be examined closely to confirm that you were genuinely married and that it was not a marriage of convenience for the sake of residency and citizenship.
One young Arab man’s experience
Let us look at the experience of a young Arab man who married an American woman.
The story of Mr. Mohamed Attia
He says (his experience as recorded in the original 2021 article):
“I came to America through marriage. I got my green card through marriage. Honestly, it is not easy, but it is not hard either. It does take a long time, though. Nobody should think it will be done in a month or two. It can take about a year and a half to two years.
After we signed the marriage contract, my wife started filing my immigration papers here. They file through an application on the USCIS website called the I-130. It costs around $600, and the process takes exactly seven to ten months.
Along with the application they submit the marriage certificate, proof of the spouse’s citizenship, and the birth certificate of the person coming from abroad. The green card is a different process from the I-130, so the $600 you pay for the I-130 does not include the green card. That is a completely separate step.
The green card process takes roughly three to five months. After that, immigration emails you with an interview date at the U.S. embassy in your country. In Egypt, for example, that is Cairo. They tell you that you have been given an appointment, and when you show up, you do a full medical exam.
The interview is simple and straightforward, and at the same time it is the most dangerous stage of the whole process. If the person interviewing you senses that the purpose of the marriage is only to get you to America and to get you citizenship, the whole journey can collapse. You can be refused, and a refusal can have further consequences.
Your information has to be accurate. Do not hesitate, and do not let them feel you are unsure of an answer. You have to be confident and know the details very well.
The truth is that having lawyers throughout the process does not change anything. You can consult one, but a lawyer will not speed anything up.
A process for a spouse takes about a year and a half to two years. A process for a fiancé(e) takes less, but with a fiancé(e) process you do not get a green card out of it.
From the moment they file the I-130 until you enter America, a spouse case costs about $2,000 in total.”
That was the account of Mohamed Attia, who emigrated to the United States by marrying an American woman. I should stress, though, that during the first two years of marriage (the conditional green card), you can expect two or three interviews with immigration to confirm that your marriage is still intact and genuine, and not a sham to obtain citizenship.
You may be asked, for example, for utility bills (electricity, gas, internet and the like) in both your name and your American wife’s name, a joint bank account, and a collection of photographs and any other evidence that you really are husband and wife.
And since we are on the subject, there is a flip side. Some people resort to illegal tricks that can get them deported. They enter what is called a “marriage of convenience”: a marriage arranged as a business deal, in which a person pays an agreed sum to an American citizen (man or woman) to complete the path to residency and then citizenship through marriage. Apart from being a crime, the trouble with this arrangement is that it cannot be trusted. Most of these marriages end with the American partner defrauding the other, or with immigration discovering at the interview that the marriage is not real. The interview is extremely thorough, and the officer conducting it is well trained to spot fake marriages. It is worth knowing that at the interview, immigration separates the spouses, then collects each one’s answers and compares them before deciding whether the marriage is genuine or a fabrication to obtain residency.
Article originally published on 21 December 2021; updated on 3 October 2026.