A United States Permanent Resident Card, known
informally as a green card because it is green in
color, is an
identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of an
alien in the
United States of America. Green card also
refers to an immigration process of becoming a permanent resident.
The green card serves as proof that its holder, a Lawful Permanent
Resident (LPR), has been officially granted immigration benefits,
which include permission to reside and take employment in the USA.
The holder must maintain permanent resident status, and can be
removed from the United States if certain conditions of this status
are not met.
Green cards were formerly issued by the
Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS). During a re-organization process, that
agency was absorbed into and replaced by the
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services (BCIS), part of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Shortly after
that re-organization, BCIS was renamed to
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS), which still retains the responsibility
for issuing green cards.
An alien with a green card application can obtain two important
permits while the case is pending after a certain stage is passed
in green card processing (filing of I-485). The first is a
temporary work permit known as the
Employment Authorization Document (EAD), which allows
the alien to take employment in the United States. The second is a
temporary travel document,
advance parole, which allows the alien to re-enter the
United States. Both permits confer benefits that are independent of
any existing status granted to the alien. For example, the alien
might already have permission to work in the United States under an
H-1B visa.
Most of the information on the card is self-evident.[1]
The computer and human readable signature at the bottom is not. The
format is (digit range: expected data (information contained)):
A full list of category codes (i.e. IR1, E21, etc.) can be found
in the Federal Register.[2][3][4][5]
A Lawful Permanent Resident can apply for
United States citizenship, or naturalization, after five years of
residency. This period is shortened to three years if married to a
U.S. citizen, or four years if permanent residency was received
through
asylum. Lawful Permanent Residents may submit their
applications for naturalization as much as 90 days before meeting
the residency requirement. Citizens are entitled to more rights
(and obligations) than permanent residents (who are still
classified as aliens in this respect). Lawful
Permanent Residents generally do not have the right to vote, the
right to be elected in federal and state elections, the ability to
bring family members to the United States (permanent residents are
allowed to sponsor certain family members, but this is often not
practical due to long approval delays), or eligibility for federal
government jobs. Male permanent residents between the ages of 18
and 26 are subject to registering in the
Selective Service System. Permanent residents who reside
in the US must pay taxes on their worldwide income, like U.S.
citizens. Certain conditions that may put a permanent resident in
deportation proceedings do not apply to U.S. citizens.
U.S. immigration legislation in the
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) stipulates that a
person may obtain permanent resident status primarily through the
course of the following proceedings:[6]
