How much does a U.S. green card cost in 2026? Fees, a lawyer, translations, and what can you not buy?

A client sent a table he had made himself: three columns — “site A,” “site B,” “site C” — and one figure in each for the cost of a green card. The figures differed by a factor of four. None of them was a lie. The first site counted only the fee. The second counted the fee plus the petition’s government charges. The third counted everything through to entry, including the consulate. That is how this market works. The price named is the part of the route that is being sold. Below is the whole route, every payment, for each way of getting a green card — and one way that does not exist.

In brief

• A green card through achievements, EB-1A or NIW, for one person: $17,000–22,000 all in — USCIS filing fees, premium processing, the lawyer’s work, a certified translation, and the application for status.
• Half the sum is fees everyone pays: USCIS, the consulate, the doctors. Those cannot be saved. People save on the lawyer’s work, and that saving is often expensive.
• A family adds $2,000–2,500 per person for adjustment of status, and $600–900 through consular processing.
• You cannot buy a green card. EB-5 is an investment from $800,000, with a review. Everything else is fraud or a crime.

What does the price consist of? Five layers

Before comparing routes, it helps to see that the cost of a green card is five layers, and an advertised price usually names one or two of them.

USCIS filing fees for the petition. Paid to the government, the same for everyone, and not refunded on a denial or a withdrawal. For EB-1A and NIW that is the I-140 petition plus the Asylum Program Fee, which since 2024 is paid by everyone who files an I-140, including self-petitioners.

Speed. Premium processing — 15 business days for EB-1A, 45 for NIW — is a separate charge, and it went up in 2026. It is optional. Without it, the wait for a decision is months.

The lawyer’s work. The fee for strategy, letters, the petition itself and handling the case. The only layer where prices differ by a multiple — and the only one where saving changes the result.

Building the record, and the rest. Translations, a credential evaluation, publications, prizes, memberships, delivery. It depends on the profile: nothing for some people, a noticeable sum for others.

Status after approval. Adjustment of status inside the United States, or an immigrant visa through consular processing — each with its own fees, a medical exam, and, on the consular route, a trip.

Now each route, in these five layers.

A green card through achievements: EB-1A and EB-2 NIW

This is the only route with no sponsor and no investment, and it is also the most transparent on money, because every payment is known in advance. The fee figures are as of the date of this article. USCIS revises them, and they are checked on uscis.gov before a filing.

Add it up for one applicant, with nothing to build, with premium processing and our fee: $4,280 in government charges + $10,000 for the work, translations included + $2,330 for adjustment of status + a $300 medical exam — about $17,000. Through consular processing, about $15,500 plus the trip to Warsaw. A family of three inside the United States adds $4,660 in fees and three medical exams; through a consulate, $1,160 and the exams. How the categories work is in “The EB-1 visa” and “EB-2 NIW”. How to choose between them is in the comparison.

Two places where the estimate usually parts company with the advertisement. The first is the fee. $2,000–3,000 means a template with no strategy, and the difference up to $10,000 is saved only until the first RFE. The second is building the record. If the criteria are met “in words,” publications and prizes will cost a sum comparable to the fee, and that sum should be known before the agreement, not after. What gets built, and with what, is in the PR catalog.

A green card through an employer

The PERM route — EB-2 and EB-3 with a sponsor — is often cheaper for the applicant. By law the employer bears a large part of the cost, including the recruitment campaign and the I-140 fee. The applicant usually pays for status after approval — the same $2,330 for adjustment of status or $580 through consular processing, per person — and for their own lawyer, if they want one. The price of this route is not money. It is time and dependence: two or three years of procedure, and no changing employer until a certain stage. For Russians in 2026 it is rarely realistic. An offer that includes a willingness to sponsor immigration is uncommon, and H-1B as a bridge is almost closed. The detail is in “A U.S. work visa for Russians”.

A family green card

A relative’s petition, Form I-130, is $675. Adjustment of status is the same $2,330. Consular processing is an NVC fee of $325, $120 to review the affidavit of support, and the USCIS Immigrant Fee of $235. Plus the medical exam. Without a lawyer that is $1,300 to $3,300. Cheaper than every other route, if there is a basis: a spouse or a parent who is a citizen. An adult child or a sibling means a queue of years. The basis cannot be bought. A fraudulent marriage is a crime, and USCIS checks marriages with an interview and documents.

The EB-5 investment green card

From $800,000 invested in a project in a targeted employment area, or $1,050,000 outside one, plus the I-526E petition fee of $11,160, plus a regional center’s administrative charges, usually $50,000–80,000, plus a lawyer at $15,000–30,000, plus status after approval. The investment is repayable only in theory. The capital has to be “at risk” and create ten jobs. This is not buying a green card. It is an investment with a review of the source of funds that USCIS conducts more carefully than a bank does.

The green-card lottery

Since April 2026 registration costs $1 per entry, and it needs a scan of the passport. After a win: an immigrant visa fee of $330 per person, the medical exam, and the USCIS Immigrant Fee of $235. All of it together is under $1,000. But the program is suspended. DV-2027 registration never opened, and there is no announcement about DV-2028. The one thing that is certainly not worth paying for here is “help filling in the form.” It takes fifteen minutes, and the middlemen who “fill it in” are useless at best.

What does “buy a green card” mean, and how does it end?

The request sounds ordinary, and there is a market for it. Middlemen promise to “arrange” a green card for money, with no basis. Three schemes sit behind that. The first is fraud: they take the money and file nothing. The second is forgery: fake diplomas, letters and income statements inside a real petition. USCIS checks documents by writing to the organizations, and a forgery is found — with a denial, a lifetime bar on entry, and a criminal case in the United States. The third is a fabricated basis: a marriage, a job at a shell company. The result is the same, plus liability for the other party.

There is only one lawful answer to “buy”: EB-5, an investment with a review, not a purchase. For everyone else a green card costs nothing beyond the fees. It costs documents, and it is the lack of those documents that people try to make up for with money when they look for somewhere to buy one.

Hidden costs that nobody names

Five items that appear in the estimate after the agreement, if you do not ask about them first.

A response to an RFE. At most firms this is a separate service. Ask the price before you sign.

Applications for the family. Adjustment of status is $2,330 for each person, including children. An “all-in” price often “forgets” this.

The medical exam. $200–500 per person, with a panel physician, in cash.

The trip to the interview. For Russians, Warsaw: the flight, a place to stay, the time. Sometimes twice, if the documents are sent back to be completed.

Building the record. If the audit showed two criteria instead of three, publications and prizes become part of the estimate. An honest firm names that sum at the audit, not after the signature.

The client with the three-site table ended up paying close to “site C” — the full figure — but he knew it before the agreement, not from the invoices. That is the only saving that works in this matter: knowing the whole estimate in advance. Whether you have the grounds for the achievements route — the only one with no sponsor and no investment — is in the quiz below. We name the full estimate for your profile at the audit.