After marrying a US citizen, how long does it take to get a green card?

I can tell you based on my friend's experience, though her case is waiting for the Interview at US Consulate. It's the last stage, and she also had some complications in between. I will let you know that as well, but let's answer your question before that. If you are outside of the United States and want to proceed with your case, your case will proceed under Consular Processing, but if you are inside the United States, you must file an Adjustment of status. The time for both is different. Here I will explain the timeline through consular Processing. The timeline may differ based on the Case category. For example, if your marriage is less than two years, your case category will be CR, Conditional resident. But if your marriage is more than two years, you will fall under the IR category, i.e., immediate relative. IR category has fast visa processing, and also there is no annual limit on the issuance of an IR Visa.

My friend is a US citizen by birth but studying in Australia with her husband. On 31 Dec 2019, she filled the I-130 Petition for her husband, which got approved after one year. After two months of approval, they got NVC welcome letter and started NVC Processing. In-between one month, they filed DS 260, Uploaded financial and Civil Documents. But she got into trouble because NVC raised a requirement of US Domicile proof. My friend was not maintaining that requirement, so she moved to the US and, after a week, provided the required documentation to NVC. After that, NVC approved their documents. So it took almost six months for her to finish up the entire Visa processing with NVC. However, one can prevent this by getting all their documents ready in advance.

Since then, they have been waiting for their Interview at the Sydney consulate. Because of the Covid19 situation, it takes so long; otherwise, before Covid 19 situation, IR category cases usually took four months to get Visa Interview appointment. So now you can calculate how long it will take based on your Case category, USCIS services Centre and the early you finish up your document submission at NVC.