{"id":544,"date":"2012-08-22T19:35:21","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T01:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=544"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:19:14","slug":"from-visa-waiver-to-us-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=544","title":{"rendered":"From Visa Waiver to US Citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Hi, my girlfriend entered the U.S on a visa waiver program.\u00a0We plan to get married now and I&#8217;m a US citizen.\u00a0Can she get her citizenship automatically by marring me?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there is nothing automatic involving immigration.\u00a0While we should be able to assist the both of you, she will not be able to obtain citizenship immediately.\u00a0You may sponsor her for permanent residence (green card) and after she maintains her residency for three years, she can apply for US citizenship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, my girlfriend entered the U.S on a visa waiver program.\u00a0We plan to get married now and I&#8217;m a US citizen.\u00a0Can she get her citizenship automatically by marring me? Unfortunately, there is nothing automatic involving immigration.\u00a0While we should be able to assist the both of you, she will not be able to obtain citizenship immediately.\u00a0You &#8230; <a title=\"From Visa Waiver to US Citizenship\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=544\" aria-label=\"Read more about From Visa Waiver to US Citizenship\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,10],"tags":[277,164],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-naturalization","category-visa-waiver-program","tag-naturalization","tag-visa-waiver-program"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From Visa Waiver to US Citizenship - US Immigration Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=544\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Visa Waiver to US Citizenship - US Immigration Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hi, my girlfriend entered the U.S on a visa waiver program.\u00a0We plan to get married now and I&#8217;m a US citizen.\u00a0Can she get her citizenship automatically by marring me? Unfortunately, there is nothing automatic involving immigration.\u00a0While we should be able to assist the both of you, she will not be able to obtain citizenship immediately.\u00a0You ... 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