Marriage Green Card Questions Getting Couples DENIED in 2025!

What new questions can you expect at your marriage green card interview this year? If you're watching videos, reading guidelines, and practicing questions, that's great. But it might not be enough anymore and that is because USCIS is quietly changing how these interviews work.

Officers are becoming more aggressive and looking more closely for signs of fraud and after attending hundreds of marriage-based green cards myself, I can tell you that the questions are changing.

So in this video, I'm going to walk you through some of the new questions and why even one wrong answer can end up leading to a second interview, a delay, or even a denial and stay tuned because I will share my best tips and practices for getting an approval on your first immigration interview try.

Even now when getting a marriage-based green card is tougher than ever.

Your Relationship Story

So let's start with where most green card interviews begin and where most couples will slip up. Your "how we met" story about your relationship. The first thing that officers almost always ask is how you met, when you met, how you first connected, and what made you first start talking. Usually they may ask when your first date was.

And if you have a relationship like the majority of persons, you may not have had an actual first date or a clean even start to your relationship. So if you haven't walked through that timeline together with your spouse, now is the time to get on the same page. I always tell couples to start a timeline, take one piece of paper, draw one line down, and start very first with when you first laid eyes on each other or when you first exchange any sort of words together, then start listing down the significant events of your relationship.

You might be surprised by just how differently you and your spouse remember the same moment, and this can cause real problems at an interview if you both give different answers. When your answers don't match, officers don't just blame it away on poor memory. Rather, they assume that there is fraud. So think about the first date.

• What month was it?
• What year?
• What did you do?
• What did you think of each other?

Go over it ahead of time so you're not trying to piece together your story in front of the officer on the day of your interview. Next, officers will want to know how your relationship progressed from the very first date until talks of marriage began.

So they may ask:

• When did you first talk about marriage?
• When did it get serious?
• Who brought up marriage first?

There's no perfect answer here, but your timeline should make some sense, especially if you got married very quickly after first meeting each other.

More recently, I have even heard officers ask questions such as, "How did you get to your wedding?" On the surface level, it may sound simple, but it's not really about transportation. A question like this is used to catch couples off guard. Officers are watching to see how closely you answer, whether your spouse gives a similar version, and whether your story fits with everything else that you have said so far.

Then from there, they may even ask who attended your wedding. This can usually include family, friends, or maybe just witnesses that you don't know. No matter who was at your wedding, officers may want to know why certain people didn't show up.

For example, if you had a small city hall wedding and you had witnesses whom you did not know, they may ask, "How come your parents weren't there?" "How come your friends weren't there?" "How come you asked two strangers to be your witnesses?" So don't let these questions catch you off guard!

Next, officers will want to know, "What is your wedding date?" Make sure both you and your spouse are on the same page, because many couples may have a city hall wedding on one day, but a different more elaborate wedding on a different day. So make sure both of you are on the same page about what wedding date to use. And your wedding date should actually match the date that is on your certificate.

Some other questions that you may hear are:

• Who proposed and how and when did you get engaged?
• What was the official date of your marriage?
• Did you live together before you got married?
• When did you move in together?
• Who brought up marriage first?
• Where was the wedding held and who officiated the wedding?

Daily Life Together

Next, after the relationship story is established the officer will probably move on to your daily routines and what it's like to live together. This part may feel casual but really it's the officer's way of digging for more information to really suss out fraudulent marriages. Why? Because couples who live together should intimately know the details of each other's schedules, what they eat for breakfast, and what their daily habits are. And that's what these questions are designed to test.

For example you may hear:

• Who wakes up first?
• What time do each of you leave for work?
• What side of the bed do you sleep on?
• How does your spouse take their coffee?
• Do you eat breakfast together?
• Who showers first?

When officers ask you these questions, they expect you to answer pretty quickly without much thought. They're looking for the kinds of details that real couples would know about each other. And when it comes to these questions, I have noticed a shift. Officers are digging even deeper into domestic life, not just to check your answers, but to see how you respond.

So you can probably expect more questions such as:

• What is the color of your spouse's toothbrush?
• What did your spouse eat for breakfast before this interview?
• How did you get to this interview?
• Which drawer does your spouse keep their socks in?
• What did you do together last weekend? Last anniversary? Last holiday? And the list goes on.

These questions may sound minor, but they are also meant to catch couples off guard. I even remember one interview where the officer asked, "What did you order and what did your spouse order at your anniversary dinner?" And if you respond by acting shocked or unprepared, it may raise suspicion.

Some other questions in this category might relate to the physicality of your actual home, such as:

• How many rooms are in your apartment?
• What kind of flooring do you have?
• Do you have curtains?
• What color is the exterior of your building?
• What is the closest intersection to you?
• What is the closest subway to you?
• Where you go grocery shopping and how close is it to your house?

In addition, sometimes officers may not even look at your paperwork before the interview. Instead, they'll look to see what you say and check out against the paperwork in front of them. They'll check to see your information matches information on your lease, your bank statements, your applications.

Don't be surprised if the officer asks who you pay rent to, what the name of your landlord is, and how much your rent is, when the terms of your lease starts, and how much maybe you got for a tax refund.

You may also hear questions such as:

• Who pays for groceries?
• Who does the laundry?
• Who picks up the mail?
• Who takes care of the dog or the pets or the children?
• What was the name of the hospital your children were born at?
• What was the name of the doctor?
• What is the name of their pediatrician?
• What is the name of your children's teacher?
• What is the name of their class?
• What grade are they in? And so on and so forth.

They may even ask you more intimate questions such as:

• What is the thing that you most love about your spouse?
• What is the thing that you like least about your spouse?
• What attracted you to your spouse?
• Who does the cooking at home?
• What do they cook the best?

Real couples can usually answer these with some humor and some warmth. People in fake relationships may tend to freeze over when answering these questions. So rest assured that if you do actually live together with your spouse, these day-to-day questions should come very easily to you.

However, you may want to start becoming more observant about your daily habits and daily life because many times we do tend to gloss over these daily details about each other.

Your Finances

Next, one of the biggest ways that USCIS tends to screen for fraud is through finances. Officers expect real couples to be financially connected, at least in some very basic ways. If you're not and you can explain why, chances are that the officer may accept. However, one of the most common questions that they will ask is, do you have a joint bank account?

If you do not have a joint bank account, please understand that the officers will give you a harder time. If you do have a joint bank account, they will ask, "With which bank is this account?" "What do you use it for?"

Sometimes while you're sitting there, they may flip through bank statements and point to certain transactions and ask what it was for. They may even ask you why certain charges were made. And if your bank account history shows almost no activity or very little activity, they will definitely ask you more questions about why.

They will have the impression that you opened the bank account just for the purposes of your application and not actually because you use it in your daily lives together. If you still don't share a bank account together, then they may ask you how you split the bills and how you share finances together.

Some additional questions might be:

• How do you pay the immigration fees?
• Who pays rent each month?
• How do you split household expenses?

They're not just checking to see how you handle money, but also to check to see if the facts align with the timeline of your relationship. For example, if your lease says that you moved in together in January, but you say that you did not start living together until March, then they will ask more questions.

When your I-485 says one thing and you say another during your interview, then this may lead to something called a Stokes interview.

Some other financial questions that may show up in this category include:

• What bills come out of your joint account?
• Have you ever applied for credit or for a loan?
• Do you have any shared insurance policies?
• Who set up your cable, phone, internet services?
• What app do you use to send each other money?

Now, I want to give you a bonus tip. Make sure you pull each other's credit reports. A lot of times, they may pull your credit report or other publicly available information and ask you questions about those accounts.

Personality and Preferences

Then, after going through your finances, the officer may shift of questions that sound more casual, but nothing is ever an accident!

These may include very casual questions like:

• What is your spouse's favorite food?
• What kind of music do they like?
• What's one thing that you both do together?
• What is the last tv show you watched together?

These questions may feel like small talk, but they're really the officer's way to see how closely you know each other. In a real relationship, you don't need to memorize things like this you just know these things naturally by virtue of spending time together. So if you hesitate or seem like you're trying to jog your memory about something like this, then it may raise signs of fraud. These questions also reveal whether or not your relationship has depth. Officers want to know if you are aware of each other's habits and quirks.

Rehearsed stories, vague answers, or robotic responses can make it sound fake, and that may be a red flag if they believe that you have studied a script to answer these questions.

For example, if If you both say that you love hiking, then they might follow up and ask, "Well, what trails do you like hiking?" "When is the last time you went hiking together?"

Or if you mention a best friend, the officer may ask, "Who is the best friend?" "What is their name?" "What do they do?" "Do they have children?"

If your answer is stress or fall apart, then this may trigger a second interview. Some of these questions may even tie back to documents or photos.

They may ask:

• Does your spouse drink alcohol?
• What do they dress up for Halloween?
• Do you have pets?
• What is your spouse's favorite holiday?

So don't brush off looking at the photographs together. Some other personality-based questions that I have seen are:

• What time does your spouse usually go to bed?
• Do they snore?
• What is their favorite restaurant?
• What kind of movies or TV shows do they like?
• Do they drink coffee or tea?
• Who usually chooses where to go out to eat?
• Have they changed their hairstyle recently?

This part has nothing to do with your marriage, but it matters just as much.

Immigration History

The officer will ask you about your immigration history they will test your spouse's knowledge of your immigration history.

For example, you may get asked questions like:

• When is the last time you entered the U.S.?
• What status was your spouse in when you first met them?
• Have you ever been denied a visa before?
• Have you ever overstayed a visa?

These are not the type of questions that couples prepare for, but they may very well be asked at your interview. And sometimes when people hear these questions, they panic, especially if they think the officer is trying to trap them and in most cases, these questions are not about discovering something new. A lot of times, they're just checking to see that you're aware of each other's history and also, sometimes they might be fishing for more information to see whether or not you are inadmissible to the United States. That's why your answers matter so much.

Honestly, if you have overstayed but you say no, this can raise a red flag, even if the actual overstay itself may not disqualify you. So don't be nervous and don't avoid the questions or try to hide anything at this point and sometimes these questions are asked just to build a record. Everything you say in your interview becomes part of your official file. So if your answer matches what's already in the system, the officer will want to hear it out loud and if it doesn't match what's in the system, then it may create an issue of misrepresentation or fraud.

You may also get asked questions like:

• Did you ever cross the border without a visa?
• Have you ever been in removal proceedings or court?
• Has anyone every filed a petition for you before?
• Did you ever use a different name on a visa application?
• Have you ever claimed to be a U.S. Citizen?
• Have you ever been arrested in the U.S. or outside the U.S.?

If you're not sure how to answer something or you don't remember the exact date, that's okay. Let the officer know and don't try to make something up.

Your Future Plans

Finally, near the end of the interview, officers will usually shift to more open-ended questions about your future, your plans, and where you see yourself together as a couple. These might sound casual, but again, they have a purpose. They're meant to show exactly how real you are because real couples talk about the future together.

So when an officer asks, "Do you want to have children?" "Where do you see yourself in five years?" "Do you plan to buy a house?" They're listening for evidence of a long-term planning in your relationship. You don't have to agree on everything.

However, if you haven't asked each other these questions or discussed these things, then it will reveal a shallowness to your relationship that the officer may use as a sign of fraud. Some of these questions about your future can also act as a sort of trap, especially when they open the door to follow up questions.

For example, they may ask:

• Are you planning for any trips together?
• If you answer yes, they may ask, where are you going?
• Who will book the tickets?
• What dates will you choose?

If your answers don't match or you're not sure, it may raise a red flag.

In addition, you may get questions like:

• What are you saving for right now?
• Do you plan to stay in your current department?
• Have you talked about moving closer to your family?

These questions may also lead to follow-up questions. Like, "When do you plan to move?" "Who suggested it?" "How does this fit into your timeline?"

Also, sometimes officers will compare your answers to the documents you have given them. If you say you're planning a big trip together, but there's no signs of past holidays or evidence of the purchases on your bank statements, this may raise a red flag. The bottom line is that you do not need to go into your interview with a perfect storyline or perfect answers. Just make sure that you have thought out well the details of your life together.

Some additional feature-based questions may include:

• Who would move if one of you got a job in another city?
• Have you talked about retirement?
• Do you plan to change your living situation after a green card is approved?
• Where do you spend the holidays?
• Who do you spend it with?
• Has this changed since you got married?
• Are there any big life events coming up, such as weddings or graduations?
• If you got an unexpected job offer in another city, what would your spouse do?

Interview Tips

Okay, so now I want to leave you with a few tips that can make a big difference in your approval, especially now since interviews have gotten more difficult.

Number one, don't guess. If you're not sure about something, it is much better to say, I'm not sure or I don't know exactly than to make an erroneous guess without letting the officer know that you're making a guess.

Officers are trained to be listening for things that don't add up. So if you're guessing something and it's completely off track, they will notice.

Number two, do not look at your spouse during the interview. Maintain eye contact with the officer. The officer will be watching out to see how you look the officer in the eye when they're talking to you or when you are talking to them. And they may usually take signs of averting your gaze as a sign of fraud.

And sometimes if you're looking at your spouse during the interview or talking to each other as you answer, then they may think that you are telling each other the answers or conferring with each other during the interview, and they will not appreciate that. So even if you forget something or feel stuck about an answer, don't look to your spouse for help. Answer it on your own the best you can, and let the officer know if you are making an educated guess.

Number three, stay calm no matter how the officer behaves. Most officers are usually professional, but some may act aggressive or hostile against you. They may be having a bad day or maybe that might be their style to ruffle your feathers to see how you answer underneath pressure. Don't take the bait. Just make sure you answer what is being asked and stay polite.

If anything serious happens, your lawyer can step in, but don't show any signs of defensiveness or frustration.

Number four, keep your answers short. If they ask you a yes or no question, just respond back to the yes or no. If they ask you any other question, just respond directly back to the question and don't add anything to your answer. If the officer wants to know something, they will ask you exactly what they want to find out.

The more you talk, the more information you give them, the more they will dig, the more questions they will ask, and the longer your interview will become.

Number five, don't try to lead or control the interview. Let the officer guide the questions. It is their interview. If you try to take over the conversation or talk too much without allowing the officer to ask questions, then they will get frustrated.

Number six, use the question itself to give yourself a second to think. If the officer says, "Who pays the rent?" You can repeat it back, "Who pays the rent? That would be me."

It might sound small, but sometimes repeating back the question to the officer will allow your brain to process the actual question that is being asked a little bit better, especially if you're nervous during the interview.

Number seven, bring updated copies of everything. Just because you sent it in months ago doesn't mean the officer has seen it. And in addition, they will want to see updated evidence of new accounts and new statements. Have your documents ready to go in case they ask and bring copies of everything!

And finally, review your forms before the interview. If there's a mistake that you see before you go into your interview, make sure you let the officer know that you have a correction. They may ask how come it was wrong in the first place, and answer to the best of your ability.

At the end of the interview the officer will ask you to sign off on any changes anyway, so this is your opportunity to correct any mistakes before the officer brings it up and tries to catch you in an inconsistency.

These days signing off on changes on the application is done on an iPad, however make sure you read all of the changes that are made because a lot of people may just sign off without reviewing all the changes! You want to make sure the officer themselves did not make a mistake. I actually had a case where this went almost very wrong!

The officer directed my client to just scroll straight to the bottom and sign, but I said, "Hold up, we are going to review this."

And in our review of all the changes that the officer made during this appointment, we noticed that she, the officer, actually changed one of my client's answers to a "yes", which would have made him inadmissible to the united states.

In short, the officer changing the answer from a "no" to a "yes" would have severely affected my client's life, therefore you need to make sure you review all the changes before you sign off.

I'm so thankful that I was there with my client, but imagine if I had not been there, my client would have become ineligible for a green card. Fortunately, the officer did correct the mistake after I pointed it out. And this is why I say don't go to your green card interview alone. Hire a lawyer no matter how strong you think your case is. You never know what can happen.

Now that the officer is going to be so much stricter at the interview, this is where your evidence matters a lot too. So if you want to avoid a denial or even a long delay, make sure your paperwork is in order.

You need to give immigration exactly what they want to see. This is why I made the video, "The Ultimate Guide to Proving Your Marriage is Real." In it, I walk you through some of the most powerful evidence that you can use to support your case. And I show you how to avoid the biggest mistakes that couples make during their marriage green card process. I'll include a link to that video, so click now and I'll see you there.