"Fastest way to get a green card" is a question about two different waits, and most answers only address one. The first is how long USCIS takes to decide the paperwork. The second is how long a visa number takes to become available afterwards — and for capped categories the second dwarfs the first.
On the first wait, the forms on the family route in FY2026 Q2 ran like this. The quickest was I-485 (Family) at 5.9 months.
| Form | What it is | Median | Pending |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-485 (Family) | Application to Register Permanent Residence or... | 5.9 months | 579,684 |
| I-129F | Petition for Alien Fiancé | 7.5 months | 34,676 |
| I-130 (Immediate Relative) | Petition for Alien Relative | 12.5 months | 761,638 |
| I-751 | Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence | 25 months | 299,880 |
| I-130 (All Other Relative) | Petition for Alien Relative | 39.4 months | 1,597,832 |
USCIS service-wide figures, FY2026 Q2
Where the real difference is
Marrying a U.S. citizen puts a case in the immediate relative group, which is not numerically capped — the petition is the wait. Every other family relationship sits in a preference category that is capped, so an approved petition then joins a visa queue that USCIS does not control and does not report here.
Every family route on this site
Source — USCIS quarterly data release, FY2026 Q2. Public domain.
Every figure above is read from the USCIS quarterly data release and rebuilt each time a new one is imported — this piece was last rebuilt 23 minutes ago. Nothing here is legal advice, and ImmigrationAll is not affiliated with USCIS or any government agency.