Legal Question in Immigration Law in Maryland

Re: Trying to get a fianc� visa. Please advise.

Unfortunately, permanent residents (green card holders) cannot petition for fiances or file for K-1 fiance visas like a US citizen can.

Permanent residents can petition for their spouses, so if you were actually married already, you could file what's called a "family preference category 2A" petition. Unfortunately, the wait times for such visas are over 4 years.

You will be eligible to file for US citizenship in about 3.5 years (you must hold your green card for 5 years in most cases before you can file). Naturalization is taking close to a year to complete these days. Then, once you are a US citizen, you could file for a K-1 fiance visa. These are currently taking about 6 months to process.

So your choices are to marry her now and file for a 2A petition, which will take about 4 years (though that wait is likely to grow longer). Or, you can wait and file for naturalization, and then file for a K-1 (if you're not married yet) or a K-3 (if you did get married at some time in between). This route will take roughly 5 years.

It's kind of a toss-up as to which will actually complete faster. Although the 2A route sounds faster today, some of the family preference categories slow down over time.

Good luck!