After receiving your green card, what to do next falls into two buckets: a handful of administrative tasks to complete in the first weeks, and a set of ongoing legal obligations that continue until you become a U.S. citizen. Getting the immediate steps right protects your ability to work, travel, and eventually naturalize. Ignoring the ongoing ones can cost you your status.
Handle the First-Week Administrative Tasks
Update Your Social Security Card
If you were issued a Social Security number during the visa process, your card likely says it is valid for work only with DHS authorization. Now that you are a permanent resident, request a replacement that removes that restriction. Call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 to schedule an appointment, or visit a local office with your green card and proof of identity.1Social Security Administration. How Do I Change My Work Status on My Social Security Card? An updated card makes employment verification simpler, since employers can process your Form I-9 without you having to present your green card every time.2Social Security Administration. Replace Social Security Card
Register with Selective Service (Men 18–25)
Male residents between 18 and 25 must register with the Selective Service System. If you fall in that age range when you become a permanent resident, you have 30 days from that date to register.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3802 – Registration As of 2026, the requirement applies only to males.4Selective Service System. Who Needs to Register It takes a few minutes at sss.gov or at a post office.
Skipping this step reaches far into your future. If you later apply for naturalization without having registered, USCIS can deny the application for failure to show good moral character and attachment to the Constitution. Applicants between 26 and 31 who never registered will have to prove the failure was not knowing or willful. Applicants over 31 are generally past the statutory period and will not be denied on this ground alone.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 7 – Attachment to the Constitution Failure to register can also block federal student aid and certain government jobs.
Carry Your Green Card
Federal law requires every permanent resident 18 or older to carry the green card at all times. Failing to do so is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $100, up to 30 days in jail, or both.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1304 – Forms for Registration and Fingerprinting Everyday enforcement is uncommon, but the rule matters during encounters with immigration officials, international travel, and employment verification. If your card is lost, stolen, or damaged, apply for a replacement right away.
Report Every Address Change Within 10 Days
Federal law requires written notice to the government within 10 days of any move.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1305 – Notices of Change of Address You file Form AR-11, which can be submitted through the USCIS website. The online system generates a confirmation receipt that serves as proof. The obligation covers every move, local or long-distance, and runs until you naturalize.
The penalty for failing to report is a fine of up to $200, up to 30 days in jail, or both. More seriously, the government can start removal proceedings against a resident who fails to file, unless you can show the failure was reasonably excusable and not intentional.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1306 – Penalties Keeping your address current also ensures renewal notices and official correspondence actually reach you.
Traveling Abroad Without Losing Your Status
Your green card lets you live in the U.S. permanently, but that right depends on continuing to treat the country as your primary home.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Rights and Responsibilities of a Green Card Holder (Permanent Resident) Short vacations and business trips are fine. An absence of more than six months can raise questions about whether you intended to abandon your residence. An absence of a year or more is treated as an automatic break in continuous residence and can jeopardize both your green card and any future naturalization application.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 3 – Continuous Residence
If you plan to be abroad longer than a year, file Form I-131 for a reentry permit before you leave. You must be physically in the United States when you file. The permit lets you apply for readmission during its validity without needing a returning resident visa, though CBP officers still evaluate your ties to the country when you arrive.11U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. International Travel as a Permanent Resident If you stay abroad past a year without one, you may need to apply for a Returning Resident (SB-1) immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy to come back.12U.S. Department of State. Returning Resident Visas
Factors officers weigh when deciding whether you abandoned residence include U.S. employment, filed tax returns, a U.S. mailing address and bank accounts, a valid U.S. driver’s license, and property or a business in the country.11U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. International Travel as a Permanent Resident
File U.S. Income Taxes as a Resident
The IRS treats every green card holder as a U.S. tax resident. Your worldwide income is taxable the same way a citizen’s would be, no matter where it was earned.13Internal Revenue Service. U.S. Residents The obligation starts the moment you receive your card and continues even if you spend part of the year overseas.14Internal Revenue Service. U.S. Tax Residency – Green Card Test Filing as a nonresident, or not filing at all, can be treated as evidence you have abandoned residence and can also trigger IRS penalties independent of any immigration consequences.
Conduct That Can Cost You Your Status
Permanent residence does not shield you from removal. Federal law lists several categories of offenses that make a green card holder deportable, including aggravated felonies, crimes involving moral turpitude, most drug convictions, firearm offenses, and domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, or violating a protective order.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens An aggravated felony conviction after November 29, 1990, also permanently bars you from establishing the good moral character required to naturalize.16U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 4 – Permanent Bars to Good Moral Character
The immigration definitions do not track the criminal ones. An “aggravated felony” in immigration law covers offenses that would sound like ordinary crimes elsewhere, including theft or fraud where a one-year sentence was imposed. Even a misdemeanor can carry consequences that dwarf the criminal sentence. If you are charged with anything, talk to an immigration attorney before accepting any plea. The immigration effect of a conviction is often permanent.
Voting and False Claims to Citizenship
Permanent residents cannot vote in federal elections. Doing so is a federal crime punishable by up to a year in prison.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 611 – Voting by Aliens Voting as a noncitizen also makes you deportable and permanently inadmissible.
The broader trap is any false claim to U.S. citizenship. Checking the “U.S. citizen” box on a voter registration form, a Form I-9, or any other government document triggers severe immigration consequences. No waiver is available, and relief from removal is extremely limited.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens Read the citizenship question on every form carefully before you answer.
Public Benefits and Your Sponsor
New permanent residents are generally barred from federal means-tested public benefits for the first five years after entry. That waiting period covers SSI, full-scope Medicaid, TANF, and CHIP.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1613 – Five-Year Limited Eligibility of Qualified Aliens for Federal Means-Tested Public Benefit Emergency Medicaid is an exception and is generally available regardless of how long you have held your green card.
If a relative or spouse signed a Form I-864 Affidavit of Support for you, that person is legally obligated to support you at 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. If you receive covered public benefits, the agency that provided them can sue your sponsor for reimbursement. The obligation does not end with divorce. It continues until you become a citizen, earn credit for about 40 qualifying quarters of work (roughly 10 years), die, or lose permanent resident status.19U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-864 Instructions for Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA
Renewing, Replacing, and Removing Conditions
A standard green card is valid for 10 years. Renew by filing Form I-90 in the six months before the expiration date; filing online is cheaper and faster than paper.20U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule An expired card does not mean you have lost your status, but it creates practical problems with employers, domestic flights, and reentry after travel. If your card is lost, stolen, or damaged, file Form I-90 for a replacement immediately, since the law requires you to carry it.
If You Have a Two-Year Conditional Card
If you got your green card through a marriage less than two years old, your card is valid for only two years and carries conditional status.21U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Conditional Permanent Residence To convert to the full 10-year card, you and your spouse must jointly file Form I-751 during the 90-day window immediately before the conditional card expires. Filing too early can result in rejection.22U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence If you are divorced, a victim of domestic abuse, or your spouse refuses to cooperate, you can file individually with a waiver at any time before the card expires. Missing this step means losing permanent resident status entirely and becoming removable.
The Path to Citizenship
Most permanent residents can apply for U.S. citizenship after five years of continuous residence, with physical presence for at least half of that period and at least three months in the state where you file.23Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1427 – Requirements of Naturalization If you are married to and living with a U.S. citizen who has held citizenship for the entire period, the requirement drops to three years.24Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1430 – Married Persons and Employees of Certain Nonprofit Organizations
A single trip abroad longer than six months but less than a year creates a rebuttable presumption that you broke continuous residence. A trip of a year or more automatically breaks it and typically resets the clock, with narrow exceptions for certain government employees and workers at qualifying international organizations.23Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1427 – Requirements of Naturalization The application itself is Form N-400, and you must maintain good moral character throughout the statutory period. Naturalizing ends the renewal cycle, closes off deportation risk tied to your immigration status, and gives you the right to vote.