Green Cards: USCIS Proposes Terminating Those With No Expiration Date
On August 22, 2007, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a proposal to require nearly 750,000 lawful permanent residents who have “green cards” with no expiration date to replace those green cards (more technically called a I-551). The USCIS wants to give those who hold green cards a 120 day period to file an application, Form I-90, to obtain new green cards, ones that can electronically store applicants’ fingerprint and photographic information.
Permanent resident of the United States are issued I-551s, green cards, as evidence of the holder’s authorization to live and work here and since August 1989, those cards have had a 10-year expiration date. At the end of the 10 year period, the permanent resident should file form I-90 to be issued a new green card.
However, between 1979 and 1989, green cards were issued without expiration dates. These are the cards that are the subject of the proposed rule.
When filing form I-90 to obtain a new green card, a permanent resident must provide current biographic and biometric (photographs and fingerprint) information. It seems to me that an obvious problem for a lot of permanent residents is the fact that they will be charged a fee to file the I-90 (currently $290.00 plus, for most applicants, an additional $80.00 biometrics fee) and the 120 day time period seems too short a time period to process all the expected applications.
While the proposal is just that--a proposal, it seems inevitable that it will be enacted either exactly as proposed or something close to it.
The bottom line: if you have one of these older green cards you should apply now for a replacement and beat the crowds. Unless there is a good reason not to just go ahead and file for U.S. citizenship, it would be a good time to do that too.
