How Much Is a Green Card? Filing Fees, Medical Exam, and Waivers

A green card costs roughly $1,200 to over $3,000 in government filing fees alone, and the honest answer to how much a green card costs has to include the medical exam, document translations, and any attorney help on top of that. What you actually pay depends on three things: whether you’re sponsored by family, sponsored by an employer, or coming through the diversity visa lottery; whether you file from inside the United States or from abroad; and whether you need extras like a travel document or work permit while you wait. Most fees were last reset on April 1, 2024, with a few specialty fees adjusted again in January 2026.¹

Family-Based Green Card

A family case starts with Form I-130, the petition your U.S. citizen or permanent resident relative files for you. That’s $675 on paper or $625 online.¹ Where you live decides what comes next.

Filing from inside the United States, you’ll submit Form I-485 to adjust status. It’s $1,440 for adults and $950 for children under 14 filing with a parent.¹ Biometrics are baked in, so no separate fingerprinting bill.²

Filing from abroad through consular processing, you’ll pay a $325 fee for the DS-260 immigrant visa application through the National Visa Center.³ Once the visa is approved, there’s a $235 USCIS Immigrant Fee due online before you travel; that pays for processing your visa packet and printing your card.⁴

Employment-Based Green Card

An employer case begins with Form I-140, the immigrant worker petition, at $715 on paper or $665 online.¹ The employer generally pays that; the worker still pays their own $1,440 I-485 if they’re adjusting inside the country.

On top of the I-140 itself, most employers owe an Asylum Program Fee. Standard employers pay $600, small employers with 25 or fewer full-time equivalent workers pay $300, and nonprofits are exempt.⁵ Missing or underpaying it is one of the most common reasons USCIS rejects employment petitions outright.

Premium Processing

Faster handling of the I-140 is optional. Effective March 1, 2026, premium processing on Form I-907 costs $2,965. It doesn’t change the outcome. It only obligates USCIS to take initial action within 15 business days.

Diversity Visa Lottery

Entering the lottery is free. Anyone charging you to submit an entry is running a scam. If you win, you pay a $330 processing fee per applicant at the consular interview,⁶ plus the $235 USCIS Immigrant Fee before you enter the country.⁴

Medical Exam and Vaccinations

Nearly every applicant needs a medical exam to show they’re not inadmissible on health grounds.⁷ Inside the U.S., that means a USCIS-designated civil surgeon; abroad, a panel physician at an approved clinic. These are private providers, so USCIS doesn’t set the price.

Budget $200 to $500 for the exam itself, which includes the physical, lab work, and a vaccination review. Catch-up vaccinations run another $100 to $300 or more if you’re missing required shots. A narrow set of applicants — refugees adjusting status and certain derivative asylees — are exempt, but most green card seekers are not.⁷

Extras While You Wait

Additional filings may come up during processing, each with its own fee:

Advance parole to travel abroad while your I-485 is pending (Form I-131): $630 by paper or $580 online. Leaving without it can cause USCIS to treat your I-485 as abandoned.¹
Work permit (Form I-765) if you want to work during the wait. Fees vary by eligibility category, so check the USCIS fee calculator for your situation.
Certified English translations of foreign-language documents — birth certificates, marriage certificates, police records. Professional services typically charge $30 to $75 per page, and most applicants have several documents to translate.

Depending on your eligibility category, some of these may already be bundled into your I-485 fee. The USCIS fee calculator is the reliable way to confirm your exact total before you file.

Affidavit of Support Income Threshold

Most family-based and some employment-based applicants need a financial sponsor who files Form I-864. This isn’t a fee, but it’s a financial gate people often ask about as if it were one. The sponsor has to show household income of at least 125% of the federal poverty guidelines for the household size, counting the sponsor, the immigrant, and dependents on both sides. Active-duty military sponsoring a spouse or minor child qualify at the lower 100% threshold.

For 2026, the federal poverty guideline for a two-person household in the 48 contiguous states is $21,640, so the 125% floor is roughly $27,050. A four-person household starts at $33,000, putting the 125% minimum around $41,250.⁸ Sponsors who fall short can add a joint sponsor or count assets. Through consular processing the National Visa Center charges a separate affidavit processing fee; for adjustment of status filed inside the U.S., the I-485 fee covers it.

Fee Waivers and $0 Categories

Some applicants pay nothing. Refugees, Afghan and Iraqi special immigrants, and military service members filing under INA section 101(a)(27)(K) have a $0 I-485 filing fee without needing to request a waiver.¹

Others can request a waiver on Form I-912 by showing household income at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines (roughly $32,460 for two or $49,500 for four in 2026),⁸ or by showing they currently receive a means-tested benefit like Medicaid, SNAP, or SSI.⁹ There’s a limit worth understanding: I-485 fee waivers are available only to applicants exempt from the public charge ground of inadmissibility. That means VAWA self-petitioners, T and U visa holders, special immigrant juveniles, and refugees or asylees adjusting status — not most family-sponsored or employment-sponsored applicants.¹⁰ Submit Form I-912 with the application; USCIS won’t consider it after the fact.

Renewing or Replacing the Card

A green card isn’t a one-time expense. Ten-year cards (two years for conditional residents) require Form I-90 to renew or replace, currently $465 on paper or $415 online with biometrics included. Replacement is free when USCIS made an error on your original card or the postal service failed to deliver it. Conditional residents also have to file Form I-751 to remove conditions before their card expires; the fee is separate, and missing the deadline can cost you your permanent resident status entirely.

How to Pay USCIS Now

USCIS overhauled payment in late 2025. As of October 28, 2025, USCIS no longer accepts personal checks, business checks, money orders, or cashier’s checks for paper-filed forms unless a specific exemption applies.¹¹ Mail filers have two options:

Credit, debit, or prepaid card: complete Form G-1450 and place it on top of your application package.¹²
ACH bank transfer: complete Form G-1650 to authorize a direct debit from a U.S. bank account.¹¹

Wrong payment method or the wrong amount is one of the fastest ways to have your whole packet rejected before anyone reads it. Consular applicants abroad usually pay at the embassy or through the Consular Electronic Application Center portal.

Attorney and Legal Service Costs

Hiring an immigration attorney is optional. For complex cases — employment-based petitions with labor certification, cases with prior immigration violations, or anything needing a waiver — a lawyer can be the difference between approval and denial. Most immigration attorneys charge flat fees for green card work, typically $2,000 to $7,000 depending on case type and location. Some bill hourly at $150 to $400.

Online filing services aimed at simple cases usually run $300 to $800. They work best for straightforward family petitions where both people have clean immigration histories. What they don’t reliably catch is a problem that isn’t obvious from the forms: an old removal order, an overstay that triggers a reentry bar, or a marginal affidavit of support. USCIS filing fees are nonrefundable if your application is denied, so the price of getting it wrong the first time is the whole filing fee plus the months or years you spent waiting.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS National Engagement 2024 Final Fee Rule
3
U.S. Department of State. Pay Fees
4
USCIS. USCIS Immigrant Fee
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Reminds Certain Employment-Based Petitioners to Submit the Correct Required Fees
6
U.S. Department of State. Prepare for the Interview
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 8 Part B Chapter 3 – Applicability of Medical Examination and Vaccination Requirement
8
HHS ASPE. 2026 Poverty Guidelines – 48 Contiguous States
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-912 Request for Fee Waiver
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 4 – Fee Waivers and Fee Exemptions
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS to Modernize Fee Payments with Electronic Funds
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Pay With a Credit Card by Mail