How Much Does a Green Card Cost? Every Fee on Both Paths

Ask three people what a green card costs and you get three numbers, because they are each describing a different path. The government fees are fixed and public. What changes is which forms your case needs, whether you file online, and what you add on. Here is the whole bill, line by line, for both routes.

The short answer: two paths, two totals

A family green card is either filed inside the United States (adjustment of status, Form I-485) or through a U.S. consulate abroad (consular processing). The petition, Form I-130, is the same for both. Everything after it differs, including the price.

Consular processing is cheaper on paper, but the applicant is abroad for the whole wait and cannot work in the United States meanwhile. Adjustment costs more and comes with a work permit and travel document for a small extra fee. Which path fits is a family decision, not a fee decision; our guide to a green card through marriage walks through both.

Green card fees, form by form

These are the USCIS fees from Form G-1055, Edition 09/09/26, and the State Department’s published consular fees. Online filing is cheaper wherever it is offered.

Biometrics are included in the form fees since April 2024; there is no separate $85 charge any more. Consular fees are the State Department’s published amounts as of September 2026; confirm them on the NVC fee page before you pay, and use our USCIS fee calculator to total the USCIS side for your own case.

What most families actually pay

For the families we file this for, the usual adjustment case looks like this: I-130 and I-485 filed together online, a work permit added because the spouse wants to work during the wait, and a travel document added because a trip home may come up. That is $625 + $1,390 + $260 + $580 = $2,855 to USCIS, plus the medical exam.

The medical exam is the one cost nobody can quote for you, because USCIS does not set it. Civil surgeons charge their own fee, and it rises if you need vaccinations or a repeat test. Ask for the all-in price before you book, and bring every vaccination record you have, including Pakistani ones with translations, so nothing is repeated.

Translations, certified copies from Pakistan, courier costs and passport photos add a little more. None of them is large; all of them are yours, not the government’s.

If your partner is coming on a fiance visa rather than as a spouse, the bill is different and larger; see our K-1 visa cost guide.

Not sure which lines apply to your family? A free green card consultation settles the list in ten minutes, before any money moves.

Costs that come later

• Removing conditions, Form I-751: $750 paper / $700 online. If the marriage was under two years old at approval, the first card lasts two years and this filing is compulsory in the 90 days before it expires.
• Renewal, Form I-90: $465 paper / $415 online, every ten years for as long as you hold the card. Our guide to green card renewal covers the timing.
• Citizenship, Form N-400: $760 paper / $710 online, which ends the renewal cycle. Many residents are eligible after five years, or three if married to a citizen.

How to pay a green card fee

1. Online filing: pay by card or bank account inside your USCIS account at the end of the form. The receipt appears at once.
2. Paper filing: pay each form separately. A card payment goes on Form G-1450, or use a check or money order made out to “U.S. Department of Homeland Security”. Never combine two forms’ fees in one payment; USCIS rejects the whole package if any single fee is wrong.
3. Consular fees: the $325 visa fee and the $120 Affidavit of Support review are paid through the NVC’s online portal after the I-130 is approved and the case reaches the NVC.
4. USCIS Immigrant Fee: paid online at uscis.gov after the visa is stamped and before travel. Skipping it means arriving with a visa but no card in the post.

Reduced fees, waivers, and what you cannot skip

Family-based applicants rarely qualify for a waiver of the I-130 or I-485 fee; waivers exist mainly for humanitarian categories. What does help: the $260 work permit rate while an I-485 filed since April 2024 is pending (instead of $470 to $520), a $0 work permit for older pending I-485 cases filed before April 2024, and the lower I-485 fee for children under 14 filing with a parent. The USCIS Immigrant Fee is waived for some categories, but not for family immigrants.

The one cost you can genuinely remove is ours. Every form here can be filed without a consultancy. What we sell is getting it right the first time, in your language, with someone tracking the case. That fee is separate from every figure on this page and is quoted after a free consultation, never before.

Mistakes that make a green card cost more

• Paying the paper fee when online was available. Up to $150 across a case, and the online receipt is instant.
• Filing the I-765 at the full rate when the pending-I-485 rate of $260 applies.
• Booking a medical exam without asking the price. The exam is the most variable cost in the whole process.
• A rejected package. USCIS returns it with the fee uncashed, but the form edition may have changed by the time you refile.
• Forgetting the USCIS Immigrant Fee on the consular path, then paying to chase a card that was never ordered.
• Missing the I-751 window on a two-year card, which turns a $700 filing into a much harder problem.

The verdict

A family green card costs roughly $2,000 to $2,900 in government fees inside the United States and about $1,300 through a consulate, plus a medical exam whose price you should ask for in advance. Those numbers are public and they do not move for anyone.

What moves is the cost of getting it wrong. File online, use the reduced work permit rate, pay each form separately, and know before you start whether your first card will be a two-year one. Our marriage green card guide covers the process those fees pay for, and our guide to the I-130 and the I-485 explains why filing them together is usually the better buy.