K-1 Visa Cost: Every Fee From the I-129F to the Green Card

The K-1 is the visa people budget for wrongly, because the visa is only the first half of the bill. It gets your fiance to the airport and to the wedding. The green card that lets them stay is a second application with its own fees, filed after the marriage. Here is the whole cost, both halves, in the order you will pay it.

The short answer

As of September 2026 the government fees for the K-1 visa itself are $940: the $675 I-129F petition plus the $265 visa application fee. Getting from the wedding to a green card adds $1,390 to $2,330 more, depending on whether you add a work permit and travel document. Most couples end up between $2,330 and $3,270 in government fees from first form to green card, plus the medical exam and the wedding itself.

The visa fee is the State Department’s published amount; confirm it on the consulate’s fee page before paying. Every USCIS figure comes from Form G-1055, Edition 09/09/26, and our USCIS fee calculator will total the USCIS side for your own choices.

Stage one: the I-129F petition, $675

The U.S. citizen files Form I-129F with USCIS to prove the relationship is real and that you intend to marry within 90 days of your fiance’s arrival. It is paper-only, so there is no online discount. The $675 covers biometrics; there is no separate biometrics fee any more.

The petition needs evidence you have met in person in the past two years, signed statements of intent to marry, proof of citizenship, one photo of each of you, and proof that any earlier marriages ended. A package that is missing any of these comes back, and the fee is not lost, but the weeks are. Our document checklist has the I-129F list with notes on what counts.

How long this stage takes is the question everyone asks next; our K-1 visa timeline covers it stage by stage without quoting month counts that go stale.

Stage two: the visa interview, $265 plus the medical

Once USCIS approves the petition it goes to the National Visa Center and then to the U.S. embassy in your fiance’s country. Your fiance completes the online DS-160, pays the $265 visa application fee, books the medical exam with a panel physician approved by the embassy, and attends the interview.

The medical exam is the one cost we cannot print. Panel physicians set their own fee, and vaccinations add to it. Ask for the full price when booking, and take every existing vaccination record, translated, so nothing is repeated. For applicants in Pakistan, the exam is done in Islamabad or Karachi through the embassy’s approved clinics.

Also budget for police certificates, translations of Urdu documents, passport photos, and travel to the interview. None is a government fee; all are real money.

Stage three: the wedding and the 90-day clock

Your fiance enters on the K-1 and you must marry within 90 days. The marriage licence fee is set by the county; in most places it is under $150. The date on the certificate matters more than the cost: the green card application cannot be filed until you are married, and the K-1 cannot be extended.

A K-1 holder can apply for a short work permit on entry under category (a)(6), but it costs the full $470 online or $520 on paper and expires with the 90-day window. Almost everyone skips it and files the work permit with the green card instead, at $260.

Stage four: the green card, $1,390 to $2,330

After the wedding your spouse files Form I-485 to adjust status. This is the expensive half. The core cost is $1,440 on paper or $1,390 online. Most couples add two things:

• Form I-765, work permit, $260. The reduced rate applies because an I-485 filed on or after 1 April 2024 is pending. Without it your spouse cannot work until the green card arrives.
• Form I-131, travel document, $630 paper / $580 online. Without it, leaving the United States while the I-485 is pending abandons the application.

The U.S. citizen also signs Form I-864, the Affidavit of Support, showing income at or above 125% of the poverty guideline for the household size. USCIS charges nothing for it. A joint sponsor is allowed if income falls short.

The medical exam done abroad for the K-1 is usually accepted for the I-485 if the vaccination record was completed, which saves a second exam. Check the panel physician completed the vaccination part.

All in, the green card stage is $1,390 online with nothing added, or $2,230 with the work permit and travel document ($1,390 + $260 + $580, and $0 for the I-864). The same set on paper is $2,330; see how much a green card costs for the line-by-line version.

Stage five: two years on, $700

Because the marriage is under two years old when the green card is approved, the first card is conditional and valid for two years. In the 90 days before it expires you file Form I-751 together, $750 on paper or $700 online, with evidence of a shared life. Miss the window and the status lapses. Our guide to green card renewal explains why a two-year card is never renewed with the normal form.

Fiance visa cost vs spouse visa cost

This is the comparison that changes decisions. If you marry first and file for a spouse visa (CR-1) through the consulate, the government fees are about $1,305: I-130 $625, visa $325, Affidavit of Support review $120, USCIS Immigrant Fee $235. Your spouse lands as a permanent resident with no I-485 to file and no separate work permit to buy.

The K-1 route to the same green card is about $2,330 to $3,270. The difference is roughly $1,000 to $2,000, and the K-1 spouse also cannot work until the I-765 is approved. What the K-1 buys is time together in the United States sooner, and a wedding here. Whether that is worth the difference is a family question; our guide to fiance visa vs spouse visa sets the two side by side.

Mistakes that make a K-1 cost more

• Buying the (a)(6) work permit on entry. $470 or more for a card that dies in 90 days.
• Filing the I-485 on paper when online was open: $50 on the I-485 and $50 on the I-131.
• Booking the medical without asking the price, then paying again for the I-485 because the vaccination record was left incomplete.
• Travelling without the I-131 and abandoning a $1,390 application at the border.
• Missing the I-751 window, which turns a $700 filing into a status problem.
• A thin I-129F, returned for missing evidence, restarting a clock that was already long.

The verdict

Budget the K-1 as two purchases, not one. The visa is $940 plus a medical. The green card is $1,390 to $2,330 more, six to twelve months later, and the conditional card costs $700 to make permanent after that. Written down, it is a few thousand dollars over three years for the families we file this for, and every figure is public.

If the goal is the cheapest path to a green card and you can wait to marry, the spouse visa is cheaper. If the goal is being together sooner, the K-1 earns its price. Our K-1 timeline guide shows what the money buys at each stage.