Did Melania Trump become a U.S. citizen before or after marrying Donald Trump?

1. Marriage first, citizenship later — the core timeline

Melania Knauss met Donald Trump in the late 1990s, married him in 2005, and then became a U.S. citizen on July 28, 2006, meaning her naturalization occurred after her marriage ^[1]. Public summaries consistently list 2006 as the year her U.S. citizenship was finalized ^{[3] [1]}.

2. How she arrived: visas and status leading up to naturalization

Reporting indicates Melania moved to New York in 1996 and held a sequence of immigration statuses before citizenship. She began applying for—and was approved for—an EB‑1 “extraordinary ability” immigrant visa around 2001, which led to permanent resident status that eventually allowed her to naturalize ^{[2] [1]}. Sources say she first came on a tourist visa and later obtained work‑authorized visas before the EB‑1 approval ^[2].

3. Why the visa detail matters to the narrative

The BBC and other outlets emphasize the EB‑1 visa because it’s reserved for individuals with “extraordinary ability,” a fact that frames Melania’s path as legally distinct from family‑based sponsorship narratives and central to debates about immigration privilege and merit‑based admissions ^[2]. Wikipedia and multiple outlets note she later used her citizenship to sponsor her parents — a point critics have cited given public controversies about “chain migration” ^[1].

4. Disputed details and persistent questions in reporting

Some outlets and commentators have scrutinized the exact sequence of visas and work authorizations before her EB‑1 approval; that scrutiny fuels questions about whether any work occurred without authorization prior to her visa approvals. Expert commentary warns that unauthorized work before lawful status can have legal consequences, though detailed USCIS adjudication history in her case is not included in the cited sources ^[4]. Available sources do not mention a full USCIS record or definitive adjudicative finding about any alleged unauthorized work ^[4].

5. Public reactions and political context

Melania’s naturalization and later sponsorship of her parents have been politicized because her husband campaigned on restricting “chain migration.” Outlets explicitly link her 2006 citizenship and subsequent family sponsorship to accusations of hypocrisy leveled against the Trump family ^[1]. More recent reporting has also revisited her timeline amid renewed political rhetoric, but the basic dates — arrival in 1996, EB‑1 approval around 2001, and naturalization in 2006 — remain the consistent facts cited ^{[2] [1] [5]}.

6. What the sources do and do not say

Primary reporting here (Wikipedia, BBC, Economic Times, EconoTimes, The Hill) gives core dates and visa types: arrival in 1996, EB‑1 approval in 2001, marriage in 2005, and citizenship in 2006 ^{[2] [1] [3] [6]}. They do not provide the complete immigration file, sworn statements, or USCIS adjudication documents that would settle every technical question about timing of work authorization or any administrative challenges to her status (not found in current reporting) ^[4].

7. Bottom line for your question

Melania Trump became a U.S. citizen after she married Donald Trump; the naturalization date reported across sources is July 28, 2006, while the marriage took place in 2005 ^[1]. Sources consistently describe a multi‑step immigration path culminating in naturalization rather than citizenship preceding marriage ^{[2] [3]}.

Limitations: this account relies on publicly available reporting cited above; the underlying USCIS case files and any sealed immigration records are not provided in these sources and therefore are not summarized here ^[4].