Form I-130A needs to be filed to provide additional information about the Green Card applicant.
This page contains step-by-step Form I-130A instructions for marriage based green card.
- Who is filing Form I-130A: Green Card applicant
- Form I-130A Filing Fee: $0
Form I-130A Instructions
This is Green Card applicant’s information
- 1. Alien Registration Number
- Leave blank if you don’t have one
- Quite common you won’t have one
- If you’re a student, who’s been issued a EAD card for OPT before, write ‘none’
- Leave blank if you don’t have one
- 2. USCIS Online Account Number
- Leave blank if you don’t have one (common choice)
- 3. You Full Name
- Enter your name as it appears on your passport, or
- If you’ve taken or plan on taking your spouse’s last name, use that instead
- 4 – 9. Address History
- Only include information for the last 5 years
- Use ‘Form I-130A, part 7’ if you need additional space
- Instructions provided in Part 7 below
- 10 – 16. Information About Parent 1
- This can be your father or mother
- 17 – 23. Information About Parent 2
- This is the information about your other parent
This is Green Card applicant’s information
- 1 – 4. Current Employer
- Enter current employer information, or
- If you’re currently unemployed, enter ‘Unemployed’ in field 1 and leave fields 2 to 4 blank
- 5 – 8. Previous employers
- Enter previous employers, if applicable
- Start with the most recent and finish with the least recent, going back up to 5 years
- Use ‘Form I-130A, part 7’ if you need additional space
- Instructions provided in Part 7 below
This is Green Card applicant’s information
- 1 – 4. Information About Your Employment Outside the United States
- Provide your last employment information only
- Enter ‘N/A’, if you:
- Provided this in Part 2 above, or
- Did not work outside the United States
This is Green Card applicant’s information
- 1a. Select this box, if the Green Card applicant or U.S. citizen has filled this application (common choice)
- 1b. Select this box, if an interpreter has filled this application
- Provide language the interpreter used to communicate with you
- 2. Select this box, if an interpreter has filled this application
- Provide the full name of the interpreter
- 3 – 5. Provide the Green Card applicant’s information
- 6. Sign and Date after printing the form
- Sign in Black ink
- If you forget to sign and date, your application may get rejected
This section should only be filled if you used an interpreter to fill your form. If not, leave this section blank.
This section should only be filled if anyone else besides the Green Card applicant or his/her (U.S. Citizen) spouse has filled this form. If not, leave this section blank.
This section should only be filled if the information provided in sections above needed additional space. If not, leave this section blank.
If you’re using this section, make sure you:
- Fill out 1a, 1b, 1c
- Fill 2, if applicable
- Do no repeat the information provided in the sections above
- If you need additional space, make copies of this section 9, and repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 for every copy.
Tips and Checks:
- If you’re hand-filling the form, use a BLACK pen
- We recommend downloading the form to your computer and saving regularly, so you don’t lose your entered data.
- Make sure the form hasn’t expired. Expiration date is stated on the top right corner of the form
- For those who have already taken or are planning on taking your spouse’s last name, use your new last name while filling the application.
- It does not matter if your SSN, Drivers License, Passport etc. have not been updated to reflect your new name. Your marriage certificate suffices the name change requirement
- For items that are Not-Applicable, write ‘N/A’
- For item that have the answer none, write ‘none’
- We think our Form I-130A instructions are sufficient, but if you want more information here are USCIS’s instructions.
Form I-130A Instructions FAQs
Per USCIS , the purpose of this form is to collect additional information for the spouse beneficiary of Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative.
In other words, Green Card applicant needs to file Form I-130A to provide information such as address and employment history.
Yes, these Form I-130A instructions are limited to marriage based green card, when both spouses are physically present in the U.S.
If you’re looking for Form I-130A instructions for a different category, visit our green card journey page.
In this case, the Green Card applicant needs to file form I-130A.
Detailed step-by-step instructions can be found in Form I-130A instructions section above.
This concludes Form I-130A instructions. If you have any thoughts, questions, or clarifications on Form I-130A instructions, feel free to ask and/or discuss them in the appropriate category within Marriage based Green Card discussions.
