Green Card:
Green Card is a special identification card (similar to an identity card) issued by the Government of the United States of America, which confirms that a given non-citizen of the United States has a residence permit in this country. The Green Card holder is eligible for permanent residence and employment in the United States. This document got its name 45 years ago because it had a green color. Then, over the decades, its shape and appearance changed several times, but now it is again the same color as before. The process of issuing and issuing a Green Card itself is quite long in time. To obtain it, you must collect a large number of documents and write several statements and appeals.
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The most realistic channels that qualify for the Green Card:
- family reunification;
- marriage to a US citizen or citizen;
- a petition by an American employer with a guaranteed job;
- lottery for obtaining a residence permit in the United States. ( Green Card lottery )
Now about 3 million applications for a Green Card are submitted annually. The term for satisfying requests in this case can range from six months to 10 years, which is associated with a significant increase in the number of applications received from residents of a number of populated countries of Asia and Latin America (China, the Philippines, India, Mexico). A quota is set for each country so that the number of immigrants from it does not exceed 7% of the total number in each category.
Green cards were introduced in 1940 as a result of the AR-3 Aliens Registration Act, and their color was originally white. Then this Act was aimed at ensuring national security and obliged all foreigners in the United States to register. This registration had to be done at the post office, and then the completed forms were sent to the Naturalization and Immigration Service (INS). Initially, foreigners were not divided into illegal and legal, each registered was automatically considered legal. After the form was processed, the immigrant received a receipt by mail, which was the first prototype of the Green Card.
The end of World War II led to a new wave of immigration to the United States, which has acquired a very large scale. The state post office could no longer cope with the registration of those arriving in the country, so INS began to combine the functions of registration of documents for entry with the registration procedure for foreigners. Thus, some of the bureaucratic procedures have been simplified, and the number of forms has decreased. It was then that the immigration card acquired its characteristic green color. There were many categories of immigrants at that time - students, teachers, workers, etc. Each of them had its own type of immigration document, defining the status of a particular group. If a person received the right to permanent residence in the United States, then he was given a green receipt, in other words - "Green Card".
In 1950, the new US Homeland Security Act came into force. The old act AR-3 was replaced by Form I-151. This uniform was also green, and since its official name, Alien Registration Receipt Card Form, was inconvenient, it was assigned a name that matched its color. This card was valid until 1964. However, due to the numerous facts of forgeries in 1964, the shape was changed, and then changed 12 more times until 1977.
In 1977, the Green Card became plastic (Form I-551) with electronic information on it. It remains as such to this day. Since 1989, the Green Card began to have a limited validity period of 10 years, then it had to be replaced with a new one. The Green Card, which is still in use today, was adopted at the end of 1997. It has several intricate security features, including optical memory and a hologram, and experts say it is virtually impossible to counterfei 🇺🇸 Apply Now ➡️
