United States lawful permanent residency refers to a person's immigration status: the person is authorized to live and work in the United States of America on a permanent basis.
A United States Permanent Resident Card (USCIS Form I-551), formerly Alien Registration Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card (INS Form I-151), is an identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of an alien in the United States. It is known informally as a green card because it had been green in color from 1946 until 1964, and it has reverted to that color since May 2010.[1] 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.
Permanent residents of the United States eighteen years of age or older must carry their valid physical green card itself at all times. Failing to do so would be a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, carrying the possibility of a fine up to $100 and/or imprisonment for up to 30 days for each offense. [2] Only the federal government can impose these penalties.[3]
Contents |
Most of the information on the card is self-evident.[4] 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.[5][6][7][8]
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 early 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,[9] but this is often not practical due to long approval delays[10][11]), 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.
U.S. immigration legislation in the Immigration and Nationality Act [12] (INA) stipulates that a person may obtain permanent resident status primarily through the course of the following proceedings:[13]
| Category | Eligibility | Annual Quotac | Immigrant Visa Backlog |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family-Sponsored | |||
| IR | Immediate relative (opposite sex spouse, minor children & parents) of U.S. citizens (A U.S. citizen must be at least 21 years of age in order to sponsor his or her parents.) |
No numerical limita | |
| F1 | Unmarried (or married to a same sex spouse) sons and daughters (21 years of age or older) of U.S. citizens | 23,400 | 7–18 yearsb |
| F2A | Opposite sex spouse and minor children (under 21 year old) of lawful permanent residents | 87,934 | 4 yearsb |
| F2B | Unmarried (or married to a same sex spouse) sons and daughters (21 years of age or older) of lawful permanent residents | 26,266 | 8–19 yearsb |
| F3 | Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens | 23,400 | 10-19 yearsb |
| F4 | Brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens | 65,000 | 11-23 yearsb |
| Employment-Basedc | |||
| EB1 | Priority workers. There are three sub-groups: 1. Foreign nationals with extraordinary ability in sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics OR 2. Foreign nationals that are outstanding professors or researchers with at least three years' experience in teaching or research and who are recognized internationally. OR 3. Foreign nationals that are managers and executives subject to international transfer to the United States. | 40,000 | currently available |
| EB2 | Professionals holding advanced degrees (Ph.D., master's degree, or at least five years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience) or persons of exceptional ability in sciences, arts, or business | 40,000 | currently available except for individuals from the People's Republic of China and India (3years)b |
| EB3 | Skilled workers, professionals, and other workers | 40,000 | 6–9 yearsb |
| EB4 | Certain special immigrants: ministers, religious workers, current or former U.S. government workers, etc. | 10,000 | currently available |
| EB5 | Investors | 10,000 | currently available, except for nationals of China[14] |
| Diversity Immigrant (DV) | 50,000 | ||
| Political Asylum[15] | No numerical limit | ||
| Refugee[15] | 70,000[16] | ||
| a 300,000–500,000 immediate relatives admitted annually. b No more than 7 percent of the visas may be issued to natives of any one country. Currently, individuals from China (mainland), India, Mexico and the Philippines are subject to per-country quotas in most of the categories, and the waiting time may take longer. [17] c Spouse and minor children of the IR/F4/EB applicants, DV winners, asylums & refugees may apply for immigrant visa adjudication with their spouse or parent. The quotas include not only the principal applicants but also their nuclear family members. |
|||
An immigrant usually has to go through a three-step process to get permanent residency. The whole process may take several years, depending on the type of immigrant category and the country of birth. An applicant (alien) in the United States can obtain two 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.
Green card holders married to non-U.S. citizens are able to legally bring their spouses and minor children to join them in the USA, but only after an extensive multi-year delay, during which time the family is separated. The foreign spouse of a green card holder must wait for approval of an 'immigrant visa' from the State Department before entering the United States. Due to numerical limitation on the number of these visas, the current wait time for approval is four to five years for all non-retrogressed countries (including Western Europe), and many more for the retrogressed countries. In the interim, the spouse cannot be legally present in the United States (let alone work), unless he/she secures a visa for himself/herself using some other means. However, securing another (i.e. non-immigrant) visa for himself/herself is usually difficult (and nearly-impossible at US embassies in some countries). This is because the spouse has to overcome presumed immigrant intent in order to qualify for a non-immigrant (or tourist) visa, a position at odds with her or his marriage to a US permanent resident. Due to the long wait and the immigration intent issues, many green card holders opt to wait to become US citizens (usually 5 years), and only then sponsor their spouses and children (the process is much faster for US Citizens). This, however, imposes a family separation of several years, unique in the immigration laws of industrialized nations.
This puts US green card holders in a uniquely disadvantaged situation:
The issue of US green card holders 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 Clinton. It effectively expired and is no longer available. From time to time, bills are introduced in Congress to reinstate V visas, so far none have been successful.
These proposals for reviving the V visa are based on something that has little controversy—family unity. However, passing such a bill into law is not a small matter, mostly because it is often perceived as a back-door to increasing immigration levels.
Many immigrants opt for this route, which requires an employer to "sponsor" (i.e. to petition before USCIS) the immigrant (known as the alien beneficiary) through a presumed future job. The three-step process outlined above is described here in more detail for employment-based immigration applications. 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.
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) receives 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. If already in the US adjustment of status may be pursued. 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 United States. Finally, the actual "green card" typically arrives by mail within a few months.
Over 6.4 million applications for the Fiscal Year (FY) 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: 41 percent of the total came from Africa, 38 percent from Asia, 19 percent coming from Europe, and two percent 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).
Normally somewhat lower than 100,000 applicants will be announced as Winners to ensure that all 50,000 Greencards will be issued. For the FY 2008 there were 5,983 Bangladesh, 8,773 Nigerian and 5,018 of the Ukrainian applications declared as Winners. [34] Of these, there were finally used 2,286 of the Bangladesh Winner numbers, 3,425 of the Nigerian Winner numbers and 1,914 of the Ukrainian Winner numbers to get a Greencard within the time limit. At the end, 46,633 were issued in the FY 2008; 3,367 less than planned. [35] Therefore the chances to become a Winner in a Lottery differs from the country of origin for which you are filed for. It also differs from year to year.
Over 14.7 million applications for the 2012 Diversity Visa Lottery were submitted. This is an increase from the more than 2.7 million applications submitted in the 2011 Diversity Visa Lottery. Taking into account dependents, there are more than 19.6 million participants in the 2012 Diversity Visa Lottery. The largest number of applicants came from Bangladesh (more than 7.6 million applicants) followed by Nigeria (2,144,626) and Ukraine (1,080,091).[36]
There is a growing number of fraudulent green card lottery scams, in which false agents take money from applicants by promising to submit application forms for them. Most agents are not working for the distribution service. 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 to provide to winners free airline tickets or other benefits, such as submissions in future years or cash funds. There is no way to guarantee their claims, and there are ample nefarious reasons for them not to fulfill their promises. Applicants are advised to use only U.S. official government websites, in which the URL ends in .gov.
Other fraudsters will e-mail potential victims posing as State Department or other government officials with requests to wire or transfer money online as part of a "processing fee." These fraudulent e-mails are designed to steal money from unsuspecting victims. The senders often use phony e-mail addresses and logos designed to make them look more like official government correspondence. One easy way to tell that an email is a fraud is that it does not end with a ".gov". One particularly common fraud email asks potential victims to wire money via Western Union to an individual (the name varies) at the following address in the United Kingdom: 24 Grosvenor Square, London. These emails come from a variety of email addresses designed to impersonate the U.S. State Department. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services blog has published information on this email scam and how to report fraudulent emails to the authorities.
The Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Trade Commission have issued warnings about this type of fraud or similar business practices.[37][38]
As part of immigration reform under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), as well as further reform enacted in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA), persons who are eligible and properly apply for permanent residence based on either a recent marriage to a U.S. citizen or as an investor are granted permanent residence only on a conditional basis, for two years. An exception to this rule is the case of a U.S. citizen legally sponsoring a spouse in which the marriage at the time of the adjustment of status (I-485) 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. A permanent resident under the conditional clause may receive an I-551 stamp as well as a Permanent Resident Card. The expiration date of the conditional period is two years from the approval date. The immigrant visa category is CR (conditional resident).
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 must file form I-751 Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence[39] (if conditional permanent residence was obtained through marriage) or form I-829 Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions[40] (if conditional permanent residence was obtained through investment) with USCIS to have the conditions removed. Once the application is received, permanent residence is extended in 1-year intervals until the request to remove conditions is approved or denied.
The USCIS requires that the application for the removal of conditions provide both general and specific supporting evidence that the basis on which the applicant obtained conditional permanent residence was not fraudulent. 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 may be accepted. 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. A follow-up interview with an immigration officer is sometimes required but may be waived if the submitted evidence is sufficient. Both the spouses must attend the interview 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 Permanent Resident Card arrives via mail to their residence several weeks to several months later and replaces the old two-year conditional residence card. This new card must be renewed after 10 years, but permanent resident status is now granted for an indefinite term if residence conditions are satisfied at all times. USCIS may request to renew the card earlier because of security enhancements of the card or as a part of a revalidation campaign to exclude counterfeit green cards from circulation.
It is important to note that this two-year conditional residence period counts toward satisfying a residency requirement for U.S. naturalization, and other purposes. Application for the removal of conditions must be adjudicated before a separate naturalization application could be reviewed by USCIS on its own merits.
A green card holder may abandon permanent residence by filing form I-407, with the green card, at a U.S. Embassy.[41]
Under certain conditions, permanent residence status can be lost involuntarily. 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 USA for more than 365 days (without getting a re-entry permit before leaving),[42] or does not file an 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. Nevertheless, it is still a good idea to renew the green card on time because it also acts as a work permit and travel permit (advance parole), but if you do renew your green card late, there is no penalty or extra fee to pay. [43]
A person who loses permanent residence status is immediately removable from the United States and must leave the country as soon as possible or face deportation and removal. In some cases the person may be banned from entering the country for three or seven years, or even permanently.
Due to the Heart Act[44] foreign workers who have owned a green card in eight of the last 15 years and choose to relinquish it will be subject to the Expatriation Tax, which taxes unrealized gains above $600,000, anywhere in the world. However this will only apply to those people who have a federal tax liability greater than $139,000 a year or have a worth of more than $2 million or have failed to certify to the IRS that they have been in compliance with U.S. federal tax obligations for the past five years.[45][46]
If the green card is not relinquished then the holder is subject to double taxation when living or working outside of the United States, whether or not within their home nation, although double taxation may be mitigated by foreign tax credits.