There are plenty of people who are trying to become American, as well. My wife came here from Iran to study at an American University, and her conditional green card is set to expire next year. We want her to get her citizenship as fast as possible. Now it seems that USCIS has put all that on pause though, so we're sweating bullets over whether they'll actually let us file the petition to have the conditional aspect removed in a year's time. If they don't, we're fucked and all of the work and money(read: thousands of dollars) we put into putting her through the system properly will have been all for nothing. FYI I'm an American citizen.
married to a citizen doesn't magically grant you anything. It makes you eligible for a K1 visa, and from there you join the same path from greencard to citizenship as everyone else.
Specifically, there's a minimum residency period before you can apply - usually 5 years, 3 if you're married. The conditional greencard is the first 18(? 24?) months, before you get the 10yr card - so if they're still conditional, there's no way they meet any minimums.
The path from marriage to citizenship is not automatic (nor inalienable).
See Soneil's response. She does qualify for it, but it's not instant. You have to be on a conditional green card for two years, then on a regular green card(which lasts ten years). We have to wait another year before we can have the conditional aspect of her green card removed. But with USCIS allegedly pausing it, even if we try to get it removed, nothing will move forward, but the clock will keep ticking till it expires.
