Green Card Holder: Rights, Duties, and Path to Citizenship

A green card holder, formally a lawful permanent resident, has been granted the legal privilege of living and working in the United States permanently.¹ The rights and responsibilities of a green card holder sit between those of a temporary visa holder and a U.S. citizen: you get most of the everyday freedoms citizens have, but you carry ongoing legal duties, and ignoring them can cost you the status itself. What follows is what you can do, what you must do, and what can take your green card away.

What You Can Do

You can live anywhere in the country and move between states without telling immigration authorities. You can take almost any private- or public-sector job; a small number of federal positions tied to security clearances or sensitive national-security work are reserved for citizens. You have the same protections under federal and state law as any other resident, including access to the courts.

Work in the United States builds Social Security credits the same way it does for citizens. Forty credits qualify you for retirement benefits, and in 2026 you earn one credit for every $1,890 in covered wages, up to four credits per year.² Roughly ten years of covered work makes you eligible for Social Security retirement, disability, and survivor benefits regardless of citizenship.

The main thing you cannot do is vote in federal or state elections.³ A few municipalities allow noncitizen voting in strictly local races, but the exception is narrow and never extends to federal contests. Claiming to be a U.S. citizen in order to register or vote, or for any other benefit, can trigger removal proceedings and permanently block naturalization.⁴

One more boundary worth knowing up front: new green card holders face a five-year waiting period before qualifying for most federal means-tested benefits, including Medicaid, SNAP, and Supplemental Security Income, with the clock starting on the date you entered with qualifying immigrant status.⁵ Some states run their own programs to fill the gap; coverage varies.

What You Must Do

Federal law attaches active duties to your green card. Enforcement is uneven for some of these, but the legal obligation is real, and a few of them can end your status if you ignore them.

Carry Your Card

If you are 18 or older, you must carry your green card with you at all times. Failing to do so is a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $100, up to 30 days in jail, or both.⁶

Report Address Changes Within Ten Days

Whenever you move, file Form AR-11 with USCIS within ten days.⁷ Skipping this can bring a fine of up to $200, up to 30 days in jail, or both, and the statute authorizes immigration authorities to place you in removal proceedings for willful failure to report, whether or not there is a criminal conviction.⁸ The form is available online and takes about five minutes.⁹

Selective Service Registration

Male green card holders between 18 and 25 must register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of turning 18 or within 30 days of arriving in the United States, whichever comes later.¹⁰ This is the requirement that tends to catch people years later. Failure to register can bar naturalization, federal student financial aid, federal job training, and most federal employment.¹¹ If you are over 26 and never registered, Selective Service will no longer accept a late registration, and you will need to document to USCIS that your failure was not knowing and willful before a naturalization application can be approved.¹²

File Taxes as a U.S. Resident

The IRS treats green card holders as U.S. residents for tax purposes. You must file federal income tax returns and report worldwide income, not only what you earn inside the United States. Filing as a nonresident, or failing to report foreign accounts, can create problems beyond tax penalties: USCIS reviews tax compliance during naturalization, and inconsistencies between your filings and your claimed residency can raise questions about whether you have actually kept the U.S. as your permanent home.

Keeping Your Status While Traveling

Your permanent resident status does not end when the physical card expires, but it can end if your travel pattern shows you have abandoned the United States as your home. USCIS looks at how long and how often you are outside the country, whether you had a specific reason for the trip, whether you intended to return permanently, and the strength of your continuing ties here.¹³ Filing U.S. tax returns as a resident, keeping a home or lease here, maintaining bank accounts and a driver’s license, and having close family in the country all help. A single short annual visit does not save your status if you are actually living abroad.

For trips shorter than a year, the green card is the only U.S. document you need to re-enter, alongside your home-country passport for airline boarding.¹⁴ Any single trip longer than six months, though, can prompt questions about continuous residence, which matters later for naturalization.

If you expect to be outside the country for more than a year, apply for a reentry permit on Form I-131 before you leave; you must be physically present in the United States when you file.¹⁵ The permit is valid for two years from issuance and lets you re-enter without a returning resident visa from a consulate.¹⁴ It does not guarantee admission, since a border officer can still weigh your intent, but it is strong evidence you planned to come back.

If you are already outside the country, have been gone more than a year, and never got a reentry permit, you may still qualify for a Returning Resident (SB-1) visa at the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. You will need to show that you left intending to return and that the extended stay was caused by circumstances beyond your control, such as a serious illness or an overseas work assignment for a U.S. employer.¹⁶ Plan to contact the consulate at least three months before your planned return.

What Can End Your Status

Green card holders can be deported. Certain criminal convictions and immigration violations trigger removal regardless of how long you have lived here or how many citizen family members you have.

An aggravated felony conviction is the most serious. It triggers mandatory deportation, bars nearly all forms of relief including cancellation of removal, subjects you to mandatory detention, and permanently blocks future immigration.¹⁷ The category is broader than it sounds in ordinary English; some state-law misdemeanors, such as certain theft or fraud offenses with sentences of a year or more, fall inside it.

Other criminal grounds for deportation include:

Crimes involving moral turpitude. A conviction within five years of admission for an offense carrying a possible sentence of a year or more makes you deportable, and two or more such convictions at any time after admission do the same.
Controlled substance violations. Any drug conviction after admission is a deportation ground, with a narrow exception for personal possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana.
Firearms offenses. Any conviction for illegally purchasing, possessing, or carrying a firearm.
Domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, and violations of protective orders.

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Non-criminal grounds matter too. Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship for any benefit triggers removal.⁴ Willfully failing to report an address change is an independent ground as well.

If you are placed in removal proceedings and have not been convicted of an aggravated felony, cancellation of removal may be available. It generally requires at least seven years of U.S. residence in any status counted from your first admission, at least five of those years as a permanent resident, and a favorable weighing of family ties and hardship by an immigration judge.

Sponsoring Family

You can petition for certain close relatives using Form I-130, but the categories open to permanent residents are limited:

F2A: your spouse and unmarried children under 21.
F2B: your unmarried sons and daughters 21 or older.

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You cannot sponsor parents, siblings, or married children; those categories are reserved for U.S. citizens. That gap is a common reason people move on to naturalization. Wait times for family preference petitions depend heavily on the beneficiary’s country of birth and preference category, and for some countries the backlog is more than a decade. When a principal beneficiary is approved, their own spouse and unmarried children under 21 can come along as derivative beneficiaries without a separate petition.

Renewing Your Card

A standard green card is valid for ten years. File Form I-90 before it expires; USCIS suggests filing about six months out. The 2026 fee is $415 online or $465 by paper.¹⁹ Once USCIS accepts the application, the receipt notice automatically extends the validity of your existing card for 24 months, so you keep proof of status while you wait. The same form covers a lost, stolen, or damaged card.²⁰

An expired card does not cancel your permanent resident status. The card is evidence of status, not the status itself. But an expired card creates real friction: proving work authorization to an employer, boarding an international flight, or re-entering the country after a trip all get harder. Keep it current.

Becoming a U.S. Citizen

Most permanent residents can apply for naturalization after five years of continuous residence.²¹ If you are married to and living with a U.S. citizen, the wait drops to three years.²² You also need to have been physically present in the U.S. for at least half of the required residency period (30 months on the five-year track, 18 months on the three-year track), to have lived in the state or USCIS district where you file for at least three months,²³ to be at least 18 at filing, and to show good moral character, which covers criminal history, tax compliance, and honesty in earlier immigration dealings.

Applicants generally must pass an English test (reading, writing, and conversational ability) and a civics test drawn from a bank of questions.²⁴ Two age-based exceptions let you skip the English test and take civics in your native language: age 50 with 20 years as a permanent resident, or age 55 with 15 years. Applicants 65 or older with 20 years of residence receive a simplified civics test.²⁵ The 2026 filing fee for Form N-400 is $710 online or $760 by paper, with a reduced $380 fee for household income between 150% and 200% of the federal poverty guidelines and full fee waivers below 150%.²⁶

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
2
Social Security Administration. Social Security Credits and Benefit Eligibility
3
USAGov. Who Can and Cannot Vote
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Good Moral Character, Unlawful Voting, and False Claim to US Citizenship in the Naturalization Context
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1613 – Five-Year Limited Eligibility of Qualified Aliens for Federal Means-Tested Public Benefit
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1304 – Forms for Registration and Fingerprinting
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1305 – Notices of Change of Address
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1306 – Penalties
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AR-11, Aliens Change of Address Card
10
Selective Service System. Who Needs to Register
11
Selective Service System. Frequently Asked Questions
12
Selective Service System. Men 26 and Older
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part D Chapter 2 – Lawful Permanent Resident Admission for Naturalization
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. International Travel as a Permanent Resident
15
USAGov. Travel Documents for Foreign Citizens Returning to the US
16
U.S. Department of State. Returning Resident Visas
17
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Family Preference Immigrants
19
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Fee Schedule G-1055
20
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Replace Your Green Card
21
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I Am a Lawful Permanent Resident of 5 Years
22
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1427 – Requirements of Naturalization
23
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part D Chapter 3 – Continuous Residence
24
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Study for the Test
25
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Exceptions and Accommodations
26
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. N-400, Application for Naturalization