Joining a spouse in the U.S.: first steps after arrival

Step 1 — Know which path you’re on

• Immigrant visa (IR1, CR1 or F2A). When U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lets you in at the airport or border, you are admitted as a lawful permanent resident (USCIS — Immigrant Fee). Your green card, officially the Permanent Resident Card, comes later by mail (USCIS — Immigrant Fee). Step 5 is not for you.
• K-1 fiancé(e) visa. You are admitted as a nonimmigrant (a temporary status), and you and your partner have 90 days to marry (USCIS — Fiancé(e) visas). After the wedding, you apply for a green card from inside the U.S., which USCIS calls “adjustment of status” (USCIS — Green card for fiancé(e)). Step 2 is not for you.

Step 2 — Immigrant visa: pay the fee, watch for your card

Pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee. USCIS uses it to process your immigrant visa packet and make your green card, and you won’t receive the card until it’s paid (USCIS — Immigrant Fee). You pay online, before you travel or after you arrive. A relative or friend can pay for you with your A-Number and State Department case ID (USCIS — Immigrant Fee). The Immigrant Fee page links to the current amount.

Where the card goes. USCIS mails it to the U.S. address you gave at your visa interview, or to the CBP officer when you arrived (USCIS — Immigrant Fee). If it hasn’t come within 90 days of paying (or of entering, if you paid before you came), USCIS asks you to use its online help form or e-Request tool (USCIS — Immigrant Fee).

Until then, your passport is your proof. An immigrant visa usually says “UPON ENDORSEMENT SERVES AS TEMPORARY I-551 EVIDENCING PERMANENT RESIDENCE FOR 1 YEAR.” With CBP’s admission stamp, your passport shows permanent residence for 1 year from the day you were admitted (USCIS — I-9 Central). Keep it somewhere safe.

When the card arrives, our guide for new green card holders covers what to check, your rights and responsibilities, and Selective Service.

Step 3 — Report your address within 10 days of every move

USCIS says non-citizens in the U.S. must report a change of address within 10 days of moving (USCIS — Change of address). This matters even more before your card arrives: USCIS mails it to the most recent U.S. address it has on file (USCIS — Immigrant Fee). If you move, update USCIS and the Postal Service each time. Our guide to changing your address shows how.

Step 4 — Get your Social Security number

• If you asked for it in your immigrant visa application, the card is mailed to the U.S. address you gave on that application (State Department — IR1/CR1). SSA asks you to contact it if the card hasn’t arrived within 3 weeks of your arrival, and to call if your mailing address changes before it comes (SSA — FAQ).
• If you didn’t ask, you apply at a Social Security office. SSA’s list: your passport with the immigrant visa, your green card if you have it, and your birth record (SSA — FAQ).
• On the K-1 path, Form I-485 has questions that let you ask SSA for a number. You don’t have to use them, but you need a Social Security number in your name to work (USCIS — I-485 instructions). If you ask this way, SSA says the card should come no later than 14 days after your green card (SSA).

Our Social Security number guide explains each route.

Step 5 — K-1 only: marry within 90 days, then file Form I-485

In USCIS’s words, K-1 status “automatically expires after 90 days and cannot be extended.” If you don’t marry, you generally must leave the U.S. at the end of the 90 days (USCIS — Fiancé(e) visas).

After the wedding:

• You can file right away. A K-1 who marries the petitioner within the 90 days can file Form I-485 as soon as they marry, with a copy of the marriage certificate (USCIS — I-485 instructions). You also need a copy of your I-94 arrival record, which you can print from CBP’s website (USCIS — Green card for fiancé(e)); see our I-94 guide.
• Use the current form. Since September 18, 2026, USCIS accepts only the 09/18/26 edition of Form I-485, and on October 7, 2026, it changed where paper forms are mailed (USCIS — I-485). Check the I-485 page on the day you file.
• Include the medical form. If you must submit Form I-693 (the immigration medical exam) or part of it, such as the vaccination record, it goes in with your I-485, or USCIS may reject the application (USCIS — I-485).
• Children on K-2 visas file their own applications (State Department — K-1).
• Don’t travel abroad yet. USCIS says that if you leave the U.S. while your I-485 is pending without an advance parole document, you generally abandon the application (USCIS — Green card for fiancé(e)).

For an I-485 filed after April 1, 2024, a work permit (Form I-765) or travel document (Form I-131) request filed with it needs its own fee (USCIS — I-485). For questions about your own case, see free immigration legal help.

Step 6 — Show that you can work

• Green card holders: your green card proves you can work when you fill in Form I-9 for a new job (USCIS — After we grant your card). Before it arrives, a foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp, or the printed I-551 note on your immigrant visa, is on the I-9 list of accepted documents (USCIS — I-9 documents).
• K-1: right after you’re admitted, you may apply with Form I-765 for proof that you can work, but it’s valid only for 90 days after your entry (USCIS — Fiancé(e) visas) and can’t be renewed (USCIS — I-765 instructions). You can also file Form I-765 together with your I-485 (USCIS — I-765). Our work permit guide explains form editions, waiting and renewals.

Then see our guide to finding a job.

Step 7 — Married under 2 years? Your card may be conditional

Your permanent residence is conditional if it’s based on marriage and you had been married less than 2 years on the day you got it, by immigrant visa or through Form I-485 (USCIS — Removing conditions). A conditional green card is valid for 2 years and can’t be renewed (USCIS — Conditional residence). On a CR1 visa, its expiration date is the second anniversary of your entry (State Department). You and your spouse generally file Form I-751 together in the 90 days before it expires (USCIS — Removing conditions).

Start that folder now. For a joint I-751, USCIS asks for copies of “as many documents as you can” showing your relationship from the date of the marriage to the present (USCIS — I-751). Its examples include a joint lease or mortgage, joint bank accounts, joint tax returns, insurance naming your spouse as beneficiary, and joint utility bills (USCIS — I-751 instructions), the kind of papers you create in your first months. Our guide to removing conditions explains the rest.

Step 8 — Get health insurance

HealthCare.gov says you may qualify for a Special Enrollment Period, a chance to buy a Marketplace plan outside the yearly sign-up window, if in the past 60 days you got married or moved to the U.S. from a foreign country (HealthCare.gov). If your spouse has insurance through work, ask soon how you can be added. Our guide to health insurance for newcomers explains the options. On the K-1 path, read its “public charge” step before you apply for public coverage: Form I-485 was revised in September 2026 to match a new public charge rule (USCIS — I-485).

Step 9 — Build a life of your own, too

At first your spouse may be your guide to almost everything. Joint papers show your shared life (Step 7); things in your own name help you stand on your own. Over the first months, consider:

• your own bank account and credit history;
• a driver’s license or state ID;
• free English classes, if you need them;
• friends, through small first steps or people from your home country.

Know where your own passport and papers are, and keep copies. If your spouse hurts, threatens or controls you, including by threatening to withhold or withdraw your immigration petition, USCIS says certain abused spouses can file for themselves without the abuser’s knowledge, consent or participation (USCIS — Abused spouses); see our guide to domestic violence help.