WASHINGTON - Marriage to a U.S. citizen remains one of the most common paths to a green card under federal law, but immigration attorneys and advocates say the Trump administration has intensified enforcement and vetting involving American citizens’ spouses, even as the underlying legal pathway remains intact.

Marriage-based green cards allow foreign-born spouses of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain permanent residency in the United States. Spouses of U.S. citizens are classified as "immediate relatives," making them exempt from annual visa caps.

Under the Trump administration, that path still exists, but immigration attorneys and advocates say the difference is that immigration enforcement and the scrutiny of applicants have reportedly intensified.

Carl Shusterman, an immigration attorney, told Newsweek in an email that the "strongest cases" for a marriage-based green card need "especially careful evidence of a bona fide marriage, admissibility, financial sponsorship, clean immigration history."

For many spouses of U.S. citizens, the process is "technically" the same as it always was, Steve Yale-Loehr, an immigration attorney who teaches at Cornell Law School, told Newsweek. However, he noted that the agency taking longer to review petitions means families where the spouse is not in the United States are being separated for a longer period of time. For some countries, the visa process has paused altogether, even for spouses of U.S. citizens.

Effective January 1, the State Department "fully suspended visa issuance to nationals of 19 countries – Afghanistan, Burma, Burkina Faso, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen," a department memo stated. The department also partially suspended visa issuance for nationals of Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Cases involving a spouse from a restricted country are among the "highest risk" of denial, according to Shusterman, along with people who had prior removal orders and cases that depend on a person's status needing to be changed inside the U.S. rather than returning to their home country to be processed at the consulate.

In an August 2025 update, USCIS emphasized more rigorous vetting of family-based petitions and reiterated that a pending or approved Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, "does not grant immigration status or relief from removal."

Officials review multiple factors to confirm the legitimacy of a marriage, including shared living arrangements, joint financial responsibilities, and other evidence that the couple maintains a life together. Couples who live apart, submit inconsistent documentation, or appear to have entered the marriage for immigration purposes may face additional scrutiny, longer processing times, or outright denial of their application.

How many spouses receive green cards each year?

DHS data show that about 343,000 spouses of U.S. citizens obtained lawful permanent residence in fiscal year 2024, accounting for about half of the green cards issued to "immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. "Overall, about 1.36 million people became lawful permanent residents across all admission classes that year. (Source: Newsweek)

Story Date: July 8, 2026