Green Cards and Divorce: Here’s What to Know

Marriage is one of the most common ways to get a Green Card in the U.S. A foreign national can get a Green Card through marriage to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. For some couples, that process starts with a fiancé(e) on a K-1 visa. For others, it starts after they are already married.

What happens to your Green Card and immigration status when a marriage ends in divorce depends on how you got your Green Card, what type of Green Card you have, and where you are in your Green Card journey. 

What is a Green Card through marriage?

There are a couple of ways a spouse can obtain a Green Card by marriage.

Direct marriage-based Green Card

In one scenario, a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident who marries a foreign national may file Form I-130 for their spouse to obtain a Green Card. 

If the petition is approved and the spouse meets all other requirements, they can apply for a Green Card either through an adjustment of status inside the U.S. or through consular processing at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad. 

If your Green Card is approved less than two years after your wedding, and it’s based on that marriage, you receive a two-year conditional Green Card.

Green Card as a “derivative” spouse

Another path to a Green Card through marriage is when one spouse receives a Green Card through a different category, such as an employment-based visa. If you receive a Green Card, your spouse and dependent children are eligible for Green Cards as well. You might hear this referred to as a derivative benefit.

These derivative Green Cards are not “marriage-based” in the same way, and they’re usually issued as regular Green Cards.

The time it takes to obtain a Green Card through marriage depends on how you qualify. For example, a foreign national married to a U.S. citizen is considered an “immediate relative,” so there is usually no wait for a visa number. By contrast, a spouse obtaining a Green Card as a derivative beneficiary in an employment-based category may need to wait for a priority date to become current, which can mean a wait of several years in some categories and countries.

How does divorce affect Green Card status?

Divorce may or may not affect someone’s immigration status. To find out, you must answer these key questions:

• Is your case still pending, or do you already have a Green Card?
• If you have lawful permanent resident status, is it a 2-year conditional status or a Green Card without conditions?
• Did you get your Green Card directly through marriage or as a derivative of a different case?

Here is how the scenarios may play out.

Before your Green Card is approved

If you divorce before your Green Card is approved, that specific Green Card application generally cannot be approved on a spouse-based or derivative basis. 

If a marriage ends before USCIS approves the marriage-based Green Card, the case is usually no longer valid and can’t move forward. That means someone who gets divorced during the Green Card application process generally loses eligibility under their spouse-based or derivative-based petition.

Some people may still qualify for a Green Card through a different path later—such as VAWA, a new petition, or another eligibility category—but the original spouse-based application generally cannot be saved.

If you have a conditional Green Card

If you have a marriage-based Green Card that was approved less than two years into your marriage, you will become a conditional permanent resident. Your two-year Green Card is valid, but there is an extra step to “convert” it into a Green Card without conditions.

To remove the conditions, you must file Form I-751, which is the petition to remove conditions on residence. In a typical case, the couple files jointly in the 90-day window before the two-year card expires.

Divorce doesn’t automatically cancel conditional status, but it changes how you file the form.

If you separate or divorce after you already have a conditional Green Card:

• You cannot file a standard joint I-751 with your spouse.
• Instead, you can usually file an I-751 on your own with a “waiver” of the joint filing requirement. 

According to USCIS, there are several bases for a waiver, including:

• You entered the marriage in good faith, but it ended in divorce or annulment. 
• You entered the marriage in good faith, but your spouse abused or subjected you to extreme cruelty.
• You would suffer extreme hardship if you were removed from the United States.

In some cases involving abuse, certain spouses may be able to self-petition for a category called a Violence Against Women (VAWA) case, even if the marriage has ended.

The timing of filing an I-751 is important. For a divorce-based waiver, USCIS generally expects the divorce or annulment to be final. If your divorce is still pending when you file, USCIS may issue a request for evidence (RFE) asking for the final decree.

A joint I-751 must be filed within 90 days before the conditional card is set to expire (unless there’s good cause, and USCIS accepts a late filing).

If you need an I-751 waiver, it can generally be filed any time after you become a conditional resident, once the waiver basis exists (for example, once the divorce is final).

If you have a Green Card without conditions

In most cases, divorce does not automatically take away your status as a lawful permanent resident when you hold a regular Green Card without conditions, and your permanent residence isn’t conditional on your marriage continuing. 

However, if you pursue naturalization to become a U.S. citizen, it can take longer after a divorce.

Spouses of U.S. citizens can sometimes apply for naturalization after three years as a lawful permanent resident—if they’ve been married to a U.S. citizen for those three years and continue to be married through the time they take the oath of citizenship.If they divorce first, the spouse must generally wait the standard five years to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

If you got your Green Card as a derivative spouse

For derivative beneficiaries (for example, the spouse of someone with an employment-based Green Card), if you divorce before you are approved for a Green Card, you usually no longer qualify for a derivative benefit. 

If you already have your Green Card as a derivative spouse and you later divorce, your lawful permanent resident status generally stands on its own. There is no automatic cancellation of a Green Card due to divorce.

Note that, as with any other case, USCIS could revisit the case if there are allegations of fraud or misrepresentation that the marriage wasn’t genuine.

Guidance about lawful status after a divorce

Every divorce, just like every immigration case, is very specific to the facts of your unique situation. 

If your immigration status is tied to a current or former marriage and you’re considering divorce, or if you’ve already divorced, it’s worth speaking with an experienced immigration attorney about your options.

At Manifest Law, our attorneys can provide you with advice on your specific status and situation, based on your immigrant goals. Request a consultation to connect with an immigration lawyer.

FAQs

What happens when you get divorced during the Green Card process?

Your Green Card process ends if your marriage ends before you obtain a Green Card. If you are eligible for a Green Card through different criteria, you might need to file a new application.

How long do you have to wait after a divorce to get a Green Card?

If you don’t already have a Green Card before your divorce, your application process stops. If you have a conditional Green Card, you can apply for an I-751 waiver to have conditions removed when your divorce is final. In this scenario, there is no set time to wait for a regular Green Card. You would wait for USCIS to decide whether to grant your waiver. As of December 2025, the USCIS processing times website showed an average wait of 28 months for a decision on an I-751 application to remove conditions from a Green Card.

Do you have to tell USCIS you’re getting divorced?

There is no general, across-the-board rule that every Green Card holder must report a divorce to USCIS the moment it happens. But:

• If you are a conditional resident, divorce directly affects how you file Form I-751. Instead of a joint filing, you’ll file with a waiver and provide your divorce decree and evidence of a good-faith marriage.
• If you have a pending marriage-based I-485 application and the marriage ends, you (or your attorney) should expect to withdraw or amend that case, because USCIS can’t approve it on that basis.
• If you later file for naturalization and are relying on the three-year spouse of a U.S. citizen rule, you must be honest about divorce and may need to switch to the five-year rule instead.

For people with Green Cards without conditions who don’t have other pending applications, U.S. law doesn’t say you have to report a divorce as an event on its own. Still, you will be expected to disclose your full marital history for any future applications.

What if your children also have Green Cards?

If your children have Green Cards through your marriage, how divorce affects them depends on their situation:

• Conditional resident children (two-year Green Cards)
  • Children who became conditional residents as derivatives in a marriage-based case must also remove conditions. They can usually be included on a parent’s I-751 or file their own I-751.
  • If the primary conditional resident parent files an I-751 waiver after divorce, the children can typically remain linked to that filing or may file their own waiver-based I-751s, depending on how USCIS and an immigration attorney structure the case.
• Children with Green Cards (no conditions)
  • If they already have regular permanent resident status without conditions, their lawful status is generally independent of their parents’ marital status. However, USCIS may still examine whether the underlying family relationships were legitimate if there are concerns about fraud.
• Children with pending cases
  • If the children’s Green Card applications are still pending as derivatives of a spouse-based or derivative-spouse case, and the marriage ends before approval, their eligibility may also be affected, because their path is tied to the same qualifying relationship.