Fiancé Visa to Green Card

Immigrants who have arrived on a K-1 (or fiancé visa) may be wondering what their next steps are to achieving permanent residency. U.S. immigration law allows for K-1 fiancé visas to be readily converted into permanent residency for the immigrant spouse. This article will lay out the steps you must take to convert your fiancé visa into a green card.  

Key Takeaways

File your form I-130 

While your status as the fiancé of a U.S. citizen has granted you a visa, United States Citizenship and Immigration (or USCIS) still needs to determine that your relationship is legitimate before allowing you to move forward and obtain permanent residency. To achieve this, your U.S. citizen/permanent resident spouse will need to file form I-130 on your behalf.  

An I-130 petition is used to establish a qualifying relationship between the United States Citizen applicant and one of their eligible relatives who wish to stay in the United States permanently and apply for a green card. One category of eligible relatives is direct family relationships, which means married partners or children. Typically, an I-130 petition made by a lawful permanent resident should take roughly 6 to 12 months to process.  

As the principal applicant, you will need to submit a corresponding I-797, Approval or Receipt of Notice form for the Form I-130 that your spouse is filing on your behalf. You will also need at a minimum: 

• Two passport-style photographs; 
• A copy of your government-issued ID with a corresponding photograph; 
• A copy of your birth certificate; 

As well as several other documents, depending on their applicability. For more information, please visit https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-family-preference-immigrants under “What to Submit (Principal Applicant).  

File your I-129F and Marriage Certificate 

As a fiancé of a citizen or permanent resident, you will need to complete and submit Form I-129F. This petition will classify your fiancé as a K-1 nonimmigrant so that they may stay in the United States to marry you. Form I-129F is available here: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-129f.pdf. 

You must also submit a copy of your marriage certificate to show proof that you did, in fact, get married during the 90-day window. This must also be done for any children you are bringing to the U.S. via K-2 derivative applications. 

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File your form I-485 

Because you already have a visa number, you will be able to fill out Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. Form I-485 is the longest and most important document in your process of becoming a permanent resident. This form establishes to Immigration that you have a legitimate reason for immigrating to the United States. There are several different sections of the I-485 form: 

• Information About You: This form, unlike the I-130, is filled out by the applicant for permanent residence. Thus part one of this form is all about providing factual background information regarding the applicant. This part will also ask whether you have a USCIS or alien registration number. It will also ask several questions about your immigration history and previous presence in the United States. It will ask both for your address information here in the U.S., as well as your last known address outside of the U.S. 
• Application Type or Filing Category: This section will ask you to identify the basis under which you are applying (family, employment, special immigrant). Those with a fiancé visa applying for a green card will select family-based immigration, specifically either Spouse of a U.S. Citizen or Spouse of a lawful permanent resident.  
• Request for Exemption for Intending Immigrant’s Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA: If you qualify for an exemption under Section 213A of the INA, this section is where you would indicate it.  
• Additional Information About You: This section will ask questions regarding prior attempts to immigrate to the United States, as well as your educational and employment background.  
• Information About Your Parents: This section will ask for information regarding the applicant’s parents. You will need information regarding each parent’s first and last name, birthday, and where they were born.  
• Information About Your Marital History: This section is where you will provide information regarding your current marriage as well as all previous marriages. If you were previously married, in addition to information regarding your previous marital partner, you will need information about where, when, and how that marriage legally ended. 
• Information About Your Children: This section requires you to list any children you have by marriage anywhere in the world. This includes adult children, as well as legally adopted children and step-children.  
• Biographic Information: This section will ask for your ethnicity, race, height, weight, eye and hair color.  
• General Eligibility and Inadmissibility Grounds: This section requires you to answer several sensitive questions related to your past. This includes organizations you were associated with, whether you have been denied citizenship for one reason or another, and whether you have committed any criminal acts or violations. This section also includes several questions intended to gauge your threat level to national security, including whether you intend to commit espionage or other crimes while in the United States or whether you have committed one of several different crimes in the past. Answer these questions as honestly and truthfully as you can. You will have more than enough time to explain yourself to USCIS in your interview.  

It will then return to asking about the size of your household in the United States as well as its annual income and household assets. It will then ask another series of questions regarding any past illegal entries or other immigration violations you may have received in the past. Lastly, part nine concludes by asking a series of miscellaneous questions regarding other undesirable conduct.  

• Applicant’s Contact Information, Certification, and Signature: This section requires the applicant to sign their name and indicate that all information contained therein is true and correct under penalty of perjury.  
• Interpreter’s Contact Information, Certification, and Signature: If the I-485 form was prepared with the help of an interpreter, that person should list their full name and sign the form here, indicating the applicant understood every single question and answer on the application.  
• Contact Information, Certification, and Signature of the Person Preparing this Application, if Other Than the Applicant: If someone other than the applicant prepared this sheet (legal counsel, an immigration help organization, etc.) that person needs to provide their name, contact information, and their signature here.  
• Signature at Interview: This section is to be completed at the interview you will have scheduled with the USCIS officer assigned to your case.  
• Additional Information: If you could not otherwise fit your information into the space provided for each individual section on the I-485 form, use this section to finish your application.  

As someone with a visa number, steps 1 and 2 can be done together. USCIS allows for persons with a visa number to file an I-485 application as their spouse's I-130 petition is being processed. This is referred to as concurrent filing and is a leg-up that visa holders have over applicants residing outside of the United States.  

Form I-485 has recently been updated by USCIS with new questions and instructions. Please use the form available here (https://www.uscis.gov/i-485) as of December 10, 2024. For more instructions on form I-485 please refer to the instructions for application available on the USCIS website here: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-485instr.pdf.  

Sit for your USCIS Interview 

After your I-485 has been processed, USCIS will want to sit down for an interview with you and your citizen/permanent resident spouse. This interview will allow the USCIS to gauge the authenticity of your relationship, to make sure you are not cheating the immigration system by fraudulently entering into a marriage to obtain permanent residency.  

If USCIS is not initially convinced of the legitimacy of your relationship, they will schedule you for a second interview to give you and your spouse the opportunity to defend yourselves. This second interview, known commonly as a Stokes Interview, may be equally as long as the initial interview. You and your spouse will have two shots to show USCIS that your marriage is authentic.

If you and your spouse are thinking about immigrating to the United States and are concerned about applying to convert your fiancé visa into a green card or about how to prepare for your marriage-based green card interview, the experienced attorneys at O’Flaherty Law may be able to help you.