Your Rights and Responsibilities as a Permanent Resident

Pamphlet

By: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Date: 2004

Source: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Welcome Guide to the United States: A Guide for New Immigrants; "Your Rights and Responsibilities as a Permanent Resident." 2004. Available online at 〈http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/citizenship/rights.htm〉 (accessed July 14, 2006).

About the Author: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services was created in 2002 as part of a reorganization within the United States government. The former agency responsible for immigration issues, Immigration and Naturalization Services, was dissolved, and many of its duties placed under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security and the newly created USCIS to manage citizenship and immigration issues.

INTRODUCTION

The 1790 Naturalization Act was the first piece of legislation in the new United States to address immigration and naturalized citizenship. The Naturalization Act limited persons born outside of the United States from becoming citizens unless they were free white persons; free, former slaves of African ancestry could not, according to this law, ever achieve American citizenship.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, changed this law: All persons born in the United States, regardless of race, sex, or nationality, were considered citizens. This "birthright citizenship" has become a cornerstone in immigration and citizenship policy; pregnant, undocumented immigrants often enter the United States illegally to give birth on U.S. soil. An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 "anchor babies" are born to these women each year; under current laws the mothers and fathers to these newly-born U.S. citizens cannot be deported. Once these babies reach the age of twenty-one, they can apply to bring relatives to the United States from their parents' home country. This "chain migration" allows extended families to migrate into the United States. Some European countries have eliminated birthright citizenship; in 2004, Ireland changed their constitution to require that at least one parent of a child born on Irish soil be an Irish citizen in order for the child to be deemed an Irish citizen.

In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act dramatically limited legal immigration for Asian persons; it was the first piece of legislation to target a specific ethnic group. The Immigration Act of 1917 limited Asian Indian immigration, and the 1924 Immigration Act changed the landscape of immigration for the next forty years, imposing stringent limits on all immigrants with the exception of those from most northern European countries. By 1965, an overhaul of the immigration process led to the U.S. borders opening for non-northern Europeans and eliminated the national origin quotas.

Legal immigrants to the United States fall into a wide range of documentation categories, from child care providers—au pairs—on a thirteen month J-1 visa, to workers in highly technical fields on H-1B visas, to permanent residents. Permanent residents—so called "green card" carriers, are legally permitted to work and live in the United States, though they are not citizens. As the following excerpt from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services guidelines for permanent residents explains, permanent residents have rights and responsibilities within the United States.

PRIMARY SOURCE

Your Rights and Responsibilities

What you do now as a permanent resident can affect your ability to become a U.S. citizen later. The process of becoming a U.S. citizen is called "naturalization."

As a permanent resident, you have the right to:

• Live and work permanently anywhere in the U.S.
• Apply to become a U.S. citizen once you are eligible.
• Request a visa for your husband or wife and unmarried children to live in the U.S.
• Get Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicare benefits, if you are eligible.
• Own property in the U.S.
• Apply for a driver's license in your state or territory.
• Leave and return to the U.S. under certain conditions.
• Attend public school and college.
• Join certain branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.
• Purchase or own a firearm, as long as there are no state or local restrictions saying you can't.

As a permanent resident, it is your responsibility to:

• Obey all federal, state, and local laws.
• Pay federal, state, and local income taxes.
• Register with the Selective Service (U.S. Armed Forces), if you are a male between ages 18 and 26. See page 11 for instructions.
• Maintain your immigration status.
• Carry proof of your permanent resident status at all times.
• Give your new address in writing to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within 10 days of each time you move. See page 12 for instructions.

Permanent residents are issued a valid Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551) as proof of their legal status in the United States. Some people call this a "Green Card." If you are a permanent resident who is 18 years or older, you must carry proof of your immigration status. You must show it to an immigration officer if asked for it. Your card is valid for 10 years and must be renewed before it expires. You should file Form I-90 to replace or renew your Permanent Resident Card. You can get this form at http://www.uscis.gov or by calling the USCIS Forms Line. There is a fee to file Form I-90. Your Permanent Resident Card shows that you are allowed to live and work in the United States. You also can use your Permanent Resident Card to re-enter the United States. If you are outside the U.S. for more than 12 months, you will need to show additional documentation to re-enter the U.S. as a permanent resident. See page 10 for more information on the documents required to re-enter the U.S. if you are out of the country for more than 12 months.

Maintaining Your Permanent Resident Status

There are some things you must do to maintain your permanent resident status. These are also important to remember if you plan to apply for U.S. citizenship in the future.

• Don't leave the United States for an extended period of time or move to another country to live there permanently.
• File federal and state income tax returns.
• Register with the Selective Service, if you are a male between the ages of 18 and 26.
• Give your new address to DHS.

Keep Your Immigration Status

Permanent residents who leave the United States for extended periods, or who cannot show their intent to live permanently in the U.S., may lose their permanent resident status. If you think you will be out of the U.S. for more than 12 months, you should apply for a re-entry permit before leaving the country. You should file Form I-131, Application for a Travel Document. A re-entry permit is valid for up to 2 years and shows that you are returning from a temporary visit abroad. You may show the re-entry permit at a port of entry.

You can get this form at http://www.uscis.gov or by calling the USCIS Forms Line. You must pay a fee to file Form I-131. If you are not able to return to the U.S. before your re-entry permit expires or you did not apply for a re-entry permit before leaving the U.S. and have been outside the U.S. for more than 12 months, you may be able to get a special immigrant Returning Resident (SB-1) visa overseas from the Department of State. There are special requirements for this visa. Visit http://www.state.gov or your nearest Department of State Consular Office overseas for more information.

File Tax Returns

As a permanent resident, you must file income tax returns and report your income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and your state, city, or local tax department, if required. If you do not file income tax returns while living outside of the U.S. for any length of time, or if you say that you are a "non-immigrant" on your tax returns, the U.S. government may decide that you have given up your permanent resident status.

Register With the Selective Service

If you are a man and you are 18 to 26 years old, you must register with the Selective Service. When you register, you tell the government that you are available to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. The United States does not have a military draft now. Permanent residents and citizens do not have to serve in the Armed Forces unless they want to. You can register at a United States post office or on the Internet. To register for Selective Service on the Internet, visit the Selective Service website: http://www.sss.gov. To speak with someone from the Selective Service, call 1-847-688-6888. This is not a free call. You can also find information on the USCIS website http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/selsvc.htm.

Give Your New Address to DHS

Every time you move, you need to tell DHS your new address. You must file Form AR-11, Alien's Change of Address Card. You must file this form within 10 days of your move. There is no fee to file this form.

Send Form AR-11 to:
Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Change of Address
P.O. Box 7134
London, KY 40742-7134

For more information, call USCIS at 1-800-375-5283 or visit http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/ar-11.htm.

If You Are a Conditional Resident

You may be in the U.S. as a conditional resident (CR). You are a CR if you were married for less than 2 years to your U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse on the day your permanent resident status was granted. If you have children, they also may be CRs. Some immigrant investors are also conditional residents.

A CR has the same rights and responsibilities as a permanent resident. Conditional residents must file either Form I-751, Petition to Remove the Conditions on Residence, or Form I-829, Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions, within 2 years of the date they were granted conditional permanent resident status. This date is usually the expiration date of your Permanent Resident Card. You should file these forms within 90 days of the 2-year anniversary of when you got your conditional resident status. If you do not do this, you can lose your immigration status.

SIGNIFICANCE

Permanent resident status grants green card holders the ability to apply to bring relatives from their home countries to the United States legally. Approximately 400,000 people enter the United States legally each year, and in 2003, more than 700,000 people received permanent legal resident status. Legal immigration falls into three broad categories: family reunification, employment, and humanitarian/refugee status. Approximately seventy percent of all green card recipients meet the requirements for family reunification—this "chain migration," where a family member migrates to the United States and then sponsors family members in the country of origin for entry, represents the majority of all legal migration into the United States.

Sponsoring a relative to reunite a family is a complex process. In addition to providing the U.S. government with a wide range of information about the permanent resident and the immigration applicant, the green card holder must be capable, financially, of supporting the emigrating relative at 125 percent of the poverty line or higher. For many legal immigrants, who receive green card status but work low-paying jobs, that financial threshold is too high.

The immediate family members of U.S. citizens—children, spouses, and parents—do not need a visa number to enter the United States; they are placed on a fast track for approval. All other relatives of U.S. citizens or green card holders then receive entry visas based on a preference order dictated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; reuniting families is a high priority for the process. Undocumented immigrants, however, cannot access any of these legal immigration processes for relatives in other countries, no matter how long the undocumented worker has resided in the United States, even if he or she has paid taxes into the federal and state government systems. Family members of undocumented workers wishing to enter the United States must do so by applying for legal entry or by entering illegally.

While the spouses of U.S. citizens receive fast track immigration approval, the spouses of legal permanent residents who are from countries other than the United States must wait to be assigned a visa number. This can separate families for years; ironically, immigrants on short-term visas, such as H-1B visas for employment, can bring their non-working spouses with them, but green card holders cannot readily do so. This separates families for long stretches of time; an estimated 1.5 million legal permanent residents wish to bring spouses and children from overseas but cannot. In 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives considered a bill to help with such family unity issues; as of this writing the bill was in commmittee.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Borjas, George J. Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Jacobson, David. Rights across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Steiner, Henry, and Philip Alston. International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Weissbrodt, David S., and Laura Danielson. Immigration Law and Procedure in a Nutshell. St. Paul, Minn: Thomson/West Group Publishing, 2005.

Web sites

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. 〈http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm〉 (accessed June 30, 2006).