United States Permanent Resident Card
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United States Permanent Resident Card, also
Green card, is an
identification card for a
lawful permanent resident (LPR) of the
United States of America.
Green card also refers to an immigration process of becoming a permanent resident. Green card serves as a proof that its holder has been officially granted immigration benefits, including permission to conditionally reside and take employment in the USA. The holder must maintain his permanent resident status, and can be removed if certain conditions of such status are not met.
Official name of the card is
Permanent Resident Card (form I-551). The name "green card" comes from the fact that the predecessor,
Alien Registration Receipt Card (form I-151) introduced at the end of World War II, was printed on green paper. Form I-551 was adopted in 1977 and has been printed on paper of various colors, none of which were green, but the term "Green card" has nonetheless remained in use. As of 2006, the card is mostly yellowish-white and the only prominent green feature is the background of the lettering on the back. A card includes the holder's name and photograph, and other information, and has been updated over the years with numerous
anti-counterfeiting devices.
Green cards were formerly issued by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). That agency has been absorbed into and replaced by the
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), part of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Shortly after re-organization BCIS was re-named to
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
While application for a green card is pending, and alien wants to legally work in the USA, a temporary work permit,
Employment Authorization Document (EAD), is needed; if an alien wants to travel abroad - a temporary travel document,
advance parole, has to obtained prior to travel.
Application process
An immigrant usually has to go through a three-step process to get the green card, which entitles him/her to live and work permanently in the United States (subject to certain rules and conditions). The whole process may take several years depending on the type of immigrant category and the country of birth.
- Immigrant Petition — in the first step, USCIS approves the immigrant petition by a qualifying relative, an employer, or in rare cases, such as with an investor visa, the applicant himself. If a sibling is applying, she or he must have the same parents as the applicant.
- Immigrant Visa Availability — in the second step, unless the applicant is an "immediate relative", an immigrant visa number through the National Visa Center (NVC) of the United States Department of State (DOS) must be available. Visa number might not be immediately available even if the USCIS approves the petition because the amount of immigrant visa numbers is limited every year by quotas set in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). There are also certain additional limitations by country of birth. Thus, most immigrants will be placed on lengthy waiting lists. Those immigrants who are immediate relatives of a U.S. citizen (spouses and children under 21 years of age, and parents of a U.S. citizen who is 21 years of age or older) are not subject to these quotas and may proceed to the next step immediately (IR immigrant category).
- Immigrant Visa Adjudication — in the third step, if an immigrant visa number becomes available the applicant must either apply with USCIS to adjust their current status to permanent resident status or apply with DOS for immigrant visa at the nearest U.S. consulate before being allowed to come to the USA.
Application process for family-sponsored visa
Green Card holders and nuclear families
Legal permanent residents (LPRs) married to foreigners are unable to legally bring their spouses (and families) to join them in the USA. The foreign spouse of a U.S. Green Card holder must wait for approval of an 'immigrant visa' from the State Department before entering the U.S. Due to a backlog in processing, such visas can take up to five years to be approved. In the interim, the spouse cannot enter the United States on any other visas or as a visitor.
LPRs are in a uniquely disadvantaged situation:
- Visitors and non-immigrants coming to the U.S. on temporary visas for work, business, or study (including on H1, L1, B, and F1 visas) can sponsor their dependent spouses to travel with them.
- U.S. citizens can sponsor their spouses to come to the USA in non-immigrant status and then convert to an immigrant status under the Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act (the "LIFE Act")
The issue of lawful permanent residents separated from their families for years is not a new problem. A mechanism to unite families of LPRs was created by the LIFE Act by the introduction of a '
V visa,' signed into law by President Bush. It effectively expired and is no longer available.
Bills HR1823 and HR4448 are in the U.S. Congress. The proposal for reviving the V visa is based on something that has little controversy — family unity — but passing such a bill into law is not a small matter.
Conditional permanent residence
As part of immigration reform under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, as well as further reform enacted in 1996, persons who are eligible and properly apply for permanent residence based on a recent marriage or as an investor are granted permanent residence on a conditional basis for two years following an initial interview with an agent from USCIS. An exception to this rule is the case of a US Citizen or permanent resident legally sponsoring his/her spouse in which the marriage at the time of the adjustment of status (I-485) interview is more than two years old. In this case, the conditional status is waived and a 10 year Permanent Resident card is issued upon USCIS approval of the case following the Initial interview. A conditional resident will receive an i-551 stamp as well as a permanent resident card in the mail. However, the expiration date will be two years from issue, instead of ten. The category will also be CR instead of IR for residence obtained through marriage.
Otherwise, when this two year conditional period is over, the permanent residence automatically expires and the applicant is subject to deportation and removal. To avoid this, 90 days or less before the conditional residence expires, the applicant has to file Form i-751 (if permanent residence was obtained through marriage) or i-829 (if conditional residence was obtained as an investor) with USCIS to have the conditions removed. Once the application is received, permanent residence is extended for one year intervals until the request to remove conditions is approved or denied.
General, as well as specific supporting evidence that the basis on which the applicant obtained conditional permanent residence was not fraudulent is required by USCIS to be included with the application. For an application based on marriage, birth certificates of children, joint financial statements and letters from employers, friends and relatives are some types of evidence that is accepted. A followup face to face interview (i-751, removal of conditions) with an immigration inspector is sometimes required but usually waived if the evidence is sufficient. This is to ensure that the marriage was in good faith and not one of fraudulent means with a sole intention of obtaining a Green Card. Both husband and wife must attend both interviews under most circumstances. The applicant receives an i-551 stamp in their foreign passport upon approval of their case. The applicant is then free from the conditional requirement once the application is approved. The applicant's new 10-year permanent resident card arrives via mail to their residence several weeks to several months later and replaces their old 2 year conditional card.
It is important to note that this 2 year conditional residence period counts towards time as a permanent resident for all purposes including
naturalization. However, the application for the removal of conditions must be adjudicated before naturalization is granted to the applicant.
Application process for employment-based visa
Many immigrants opt for this route, which requires an employer to "sponsor" (i.e. to petition before USCIS) the immigrant (known as
alien beneficiary) through a presumed future job. The three-step process outlined above is described here in more detail for employment-based immigration process. After the process is complete, the alien is expected to take the certified job offered by the employer to substantiate his or her immigrant status, since the application ultimately rests on the alien's employment with that company in that particular position.
- Immigrant Petition includes pre-requisite labor certification step upon which the actual petition will reside.
- Labor Certification — the employer must legally "prove" that it has a need to hire an alien for a specific position and that there are no minimally qualified U.S. citizen or LPR available to fill that position, hence the reason for hiring the alien. Some of the requirements to prove this situation include proof of advertising for the specific position, skill requirements that are particular to the job, verification of the prevailing wage for a position, and the employer's ability to pay. As of March 28, 2005, this is currently done through an electronic system known as PERM. Date when labor certifcation application was filed becomes applicant's priority date. In some cases, for highly skilled foreign nationals (EB1 and EB2 National Interest Waiver, e.g. researchers, athletes, artists or business executives) and "Schedule A" labor (nurses and physical therapists), this step is waived. This step is processed by the United States Department of Labor (DOL).
- Immigrant Petition — the employer applies on the alien's behalf to obtain a visa number. The application is the Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (form I-140) that is processed by the USCIS. There are several EB (stands for employment-based) immigrant categories under which the alien may apply, with progressively stricter requirements, but often shorter waiting times. Many of the applications are processed under the EB3 category.Currently, this process takes up to 6 months. Under many of the categories, the premium processing of this stage has also been started which allows this stage to be expedited.
- Immigrant Visa Availability. When immigrant petition is approved by USCIS, petition is forwarded to NVC for visa allocation. Currently this step centers around the priority date concept.
- Priority date — visa becomes available when priority date assigned to applicant is earlier than the cutoff date announced on DOS Visa Bulletin or when immigrant visa category that applicant is assigned to is announced as "current" (in this case visa numbers are available to all applicants in the corresponding immigrant category). Petitions with priority dates earlier than cutoff date are expected to have visas available, therefore those applicants could move on to adjudicate their cases. When NVC determines that visa number could be available for a particular immigrant petition, visa is tentatively allocated to the applicant. NVC will send a letter stating that applicant may be eligible for adjustment of status and will ask whether applicant chooses to adjust status with USCIS or apply at the U.S. consulate abroad. This waiting process determines when applicant can expect the immigration case to be adjudicated. Due to quotas imposed on EB visa categories, there are more approved immigrant petitions than visas available under INA. High demand for visas has created a backlog of approved but not adjudicated cases. In addition, due to processing inefficiencies throughout DOS and USCIS systems, not all visas available under quota system in a given year were allocated to applicants by DOS. Since there is no quota carry-over to the next fiscal year, for several years visa quotas have not been fully used, thus adding to the visa backlog.
- Immigrant Visa Adjudication. When NVC determines that immigrant visa is available, case can be adjudicated. If alien is already in the U.S., that alien has a choice to finalize the green card process via adjustment of status in the U.S. or via consular processing abroad. If alien is outside of the U.S. he/she can only apply for an immigrant visa at U.S. consulate. The USCIS does not allow an alien to pursue consular processing and AOS simultaneously.
- Adjustment of Status (AOS) — after the alien has labor certification application approved and has been provisionally allocated a visa number, the final step is to change his or her status to permanent residency. Adjustment of status is submitted to USCIS via Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (form I-485). If an immigrant visa number is available, the USCIS will allow "concurrent filing": it will accept forms I-140 and I-485 submitted in the same package or will accept form I-485 even before the approval of I-140. The USCIS conducts a series of background checks (including fingerprinting for FBI criminal background check and name checks) and makes decision on AOS. If application is approved, alien becomes LPR, and the actual green card is mailed to the aliens' last known mailing address.
- Consular Processing — this is an alternative to AOS, but still requires the immigrant visa petition to be completed. The alien makes an appointment at the U.S. consulate in his/her home country, where a consular officer adjudicates the case. If the case is approved, the alien gains LPR status immediately. In the past (pre-2005), this process was somewhat faster than applying for AOS, so was sometimes used to circumvent long backlogs (of over 2 years in some cases). However, due to recent efficiency improvements by the USCIS, it is not clear whether applying via consular processing is faster than the regular AOS process. Consular processing is also thought to be riskier since there is no or very little recourse for appeal if the officer denies the application.
Recent developments
After a significant forward movement in the cutoff priority dates was announced on June 2007 Visa Bulletin, July 2007 Visa Bulletin has seen another unprecedented jump — after years of backlog stagnation all of the EB preference categories became
current (except
Other Workers). After issuing a revised July Visa Bulletin on July 2 (which set all priority dates as
unavailable) and later nullifying it, it was clarified via
USCIS Update on July 17, 2007 that USCIS will keep the applications filed and will re-open filings for a 31-day period from July 18 through August 17, 2007, in order to provide the same filing window to those filers who would have had been eligible to file if the July 2 actions had not taken place. Filers will be able to pay I-485 form filing fees according to July fee schedule during the entire window period.
New fee schedule
Effective August 1 but technically only starting on August 18, 2007 new rates for filing adjustment of status will be assessed. Where it previously cost $325 base fee plus a $70 biometric fee (if applicant is between 14 and 79 years of age) to file the I-485 form, it will now cost $930 plus biometrics fee of $80. This new fee however is a "package fee": an initial filing of I-765 form
Application for Employment Authorization and I-131 form
Application for Travel Document is free (whereas previous cost was $180 and $170 respectively).
Green Card lottery
Each year, around 50,000 immigrant visas are made available through the Diversity Visa (DV) program, also known as the
Green Card Lottery to people who were born in countries with low rates of immigration to the United States (fewer than 50,000 immigrants in the past five years). Applicants can only qualify by country of birth, not by citizenship. Anyone who is selected under this lottery will be given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence. They can also file for their spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21.
If permanent residence is granted, the winner (and his/her family, if applicable) receive an immigrant visa in their passport(s) that has to be "activated" within six months of issuance at any port of entry to the United States. The new immigrant receives a stamp on the visa as proof of lawful admittance to the United States, and the individual is now authorized to live and work permanently in the US. Finally, the actual "green card" will typically arrive by mail within a few months.
Green Card lottery scam
There is a growing number of fraudulent green card lottery scams, in which agents take money from applicants by submitting application forms for them, usually for a fee between US$50 to US$250. Some claim that they can increase the chance of winning the lottery. This is not true — in fact, they may delay or not submit the application. Likewise, some claim that they provide free airline tickets to winners or other benefits, such as submissions in future years and even cash funds. There is no way to guarantee their claims, and there are ample reasons for them not to fulfill their promises.
Both the Department of State and the Federal Trade Commission have issued warning statements about this type of fraud or similar business practices.
Recent developments
Over 6.4 million applications for the 2008 Diversity Visa Lottery were submitted. This is an increase from the more than 5.5 million applications submitted in the 2007 Diversity Visa Lottery. Taking into account dependents, there are more than 10 million participants in the 2008 Diversity Visa Lottery. Most of the applications were from Africa and Asia with 41 percent of the total from Africa, 38 percent from Asia, 19 percent coming from Europe, and 2 percent coming from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The largest number of applicants came from
Bangladesh (more than 1.7 million applicants) followed by
Nigeria (684,735) and
Ukraine (619,584).
Maintaining permanent resident status
The card must be in the possession of the U.S.
permanent resident at all times. This means that permanent resident must have a currently valid card on the person at all times and be able to show it to a USCIS officer, if requested. Though aliens with permanent resident status are required to carry these identification cards, American
citizens are not required to carry any citizenship identification. Before
September 11, 2001, while status was checked when one returned from foreign travel, the requirement to carry the green card was practically never enforced when the resident was traveling domestically. After that, officials from the DOS began occasionally asking people if they were U.S. citizens or not, and in the latter case require that the person present their Permanent Resident Card or other proof of legal status.
Under certain conditions, permanent residence status can be lost. This includes committing a criminal act that makes a person removable from the United States. A person might also be found to have abandoned their status if he or she moves to another country to live there permanently, stays outside the U.S. for more than 365 days (without getting a re-entry permit before leaving), or does not file
income tax return. Permanent resident status can also be lost if it is found that the application or grounds for obtaining permanent residence was fraudulent. The failure to renew the permanent resident card does not result in the loss of status, except in the case of conditional permanent residents as noted above.
A person who loses their permanent residence is immediately removable from the United States and must leave the U.S. as soon as possible or face deportation and removal. In some cases the person may be banned from entering the country for 3 or 7 years, or even permanently.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Permanent_Resident_Card
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