USCIS Makes Tougher Changes to Green Card Process for Married Couples

The US green card process for married couples is significantly stricter by USCIS in 2025 . New rules mandate in-person interviews for all applicants, regardless of documentation, and these interviews are now longer and more detailed, probing personal aspects of the relationship.

Couples face increased documentation requirements, needing extensive proof like joint bank statements and travel histories. Additionally, USCIS has broadened its ability to conduct unannounced home visits, especially for marriages under two years, to verify the relationship's legitimacy and combat fraud.

Key Changes in the Marriage-Based Green Card Process

The new rules regarding immigration introduced in 2025 include multiple important procedural changes surrounding marriage cases that will affect how applications for a marriage-based green card will be reviewed. These new rules will increase enforcement and reduce fraud but will also create issues for the legit couple. Below are the main changes:

1. Mandatory In-Person Interviews for All Applicants
USCIS has removed the ability to have an interview waived for marriage-based green card applications. Every couple must now get interviewed in person, regardless of how rigorous their documentation was and the duration of their marriage.

2. Longer and More Detailed Interviews
USCIS officers are now required to conduct time-consuming interviews and focus on asking personal and sometimes awkward questions about the couple’s relationship history, daily life, finances, and future plans. The interviews are intended to identify inconsistencies or fraud.

3. Increased Documentation Requirements
Couples must submit more and better documents to show that their marriage is bona fide. They will need to create a clear paper trail consisting of the following documents:

Joint bank statements

Lease or mortgage with both names

Utility bills

Relationship photos from multiple time periods

Communications from the relationships (texts, emails, call logs)

Travel history and tickets to support the amount of time they spent together.

4. Surprise Site Visits
USCIS has broadened their ability to make unannounced visits to people’s homes, especially when the couple has been married for less than two years. The officer will be able to inspect the couple’s living situation and will be able to ask questions immediately regarding the situation.

In 2025, the U.S. government has just made stricter rules on marriage-based green card applications. Simply put, the U.S. government is making it harder, but still allowing couples to get permanent residency through a spouse who is either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident.

The changes also follow the shift in focus by immigration authorities away from the things they used to do around systemic protections for global immigration. Instead, they took a more serious approach towards the systemic protections for family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

As one of the faster forms of immigration to a green card, it is requiring more work than ever from a person applying for a green card to go through a marriage-based application. Simultaneously, there are also longer interviews, increased documentation requirements, unannounced home visits, and now requiring couples to meet more often.

For those who are not fraudsters and mean to be genuine couples, things seem to be getting a little more stringent and time-consuming, and they are hiring more legal help. This article will discuss the changes, the process, and misconceptions couples have about the new rules.