Naturalized US citizens married to foreigners can help their spouses in obtaining a green card by sponsoring them. Along with the sponsor’s application, the US citizens must also submit proof of US citizenship, proof of marriage and other relevant documentation. This method is the most common form of green card application and issuance. Every year, there are several thousand US citizens who choose to marry foreigners and almost 95% of them choose to bring their spouses to the United States. A very few percentage of them opt to stay back in their spouses home country and therefore, this green card process is well used and optimized for efficiency of time and thoroughness of authentication.

The most common hurdle that applicants of this process face is the establishment of the proof of marriage. US laws are very stringent in their acceptance of marriage. Many marriages that are completed according to the traditions and customs of the foreign countries are not accepted by the US immigration authorities. The acceptance of these types of marriages by the spouse’s foreign country does not influence the US authorities. There are specific guidelines about the legality of marriages that are stipulated by the United States government and all married couples must adhere to them if they want to apply for a green card, immaterial of their marriage acceptance to local laws and customs.

The green card through marriage applications will be processed through the local embassies and then submitted to the immigration authorities. The entire process is similar to the processes of other green card application but the advantage is that there are no limits to this process. The other green card applications are limited to a yearly ceiling on the number of applications that are accepted. The excess in numbers are placed in waiting status that would be reopened for process in the next year. Many processes have waiting lists that run into many years before clearance but with green card through marriage, these restrictions are not applicable.

Green card through marriage can be obtained in two ways; the application can be processed through the embassies of the spouses of US residents or they can be processed from US itself. The procedure for both these types of application is the same, where the sponsor needs to submit the application and documents before a series of interviews and scrutinizes. The entire process can run the course of a few months but it is a lot less complicated and faster than the other processes. Green card through marriage can also be sponsored by non naturalized residents of the US but the process is a lot more complicated and time consuming is such cases.

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