What Is an Alien Registration Card?
Alien registration cards, widely known as "green cards" but formally called Permanent Resident Cards, are issued by the U.S. government as evidence that a non-citizen is authorized to live and hold employment within the United States as a permanent resident.
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Description
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Green cards are mostly not green any more, though earlier versions after World War II were, and some lettering on the back is still green. The plastic cards are the size of a credit card and the background color of the front is off-white.
Information: Front
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On the front of the card are the permanent resident's name, alien registration number (marked A#), birth date, sex, country of origin, date when residence began, kind of visa he or she has, and when the card expires. Embedded in the front are a photograph and an index fingerprint of the card holder, as well as the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the issuing agency.
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Information: Back
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Much of the same information is digitally encoded on a large silvery stripe on the back of the card for reading by specially designed scanning devices. That encoding and other high-tech aspects of the modern green card were introduced in the last decade to cut down on forgery of the card.
Presidents and Flags
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Also embedded on the back of the card, very small but visible to the naked eye, is a row of portraits of each U.S. president and a row depicting every state flag.
Issuance
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Permanent Resident Cards are issued to non-citizens who are lawful permanent residents, regardless of the kind of visa they hold. Generally, green cards expire 10 years after issuance, though conditional permanent residents are given cards good for two years. Green cards are renewable as long as the card holder is still a lawful permanent resident, and at the time of renewal, the card holder receives a new card.
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