IMMIGRATION LAW
Immigration lawyer for green card renewal in NYC
There are two types of applications to renew your green card. First is renewal of your 10-year card because it is lost, stolen or about to expire. And the second type is renewal of the temporary two-year card. The two types of renewals require different applications and different types of documentation in support. We will discuss both type of renewals below.
Why submit a petition to remove conditions of the 10-year card?
If your green card is valid for ten years, you need to renew your green card it if it is lost, stolen, already expired or about to expire in 6 months. You can also submit a request to renew if your green card has typographical errors on it such as errors in the spelling of your names, date of birth, or other personal data.
The tricky part is that you cannot send in the renewal earlier than 6 months prior to the expiration date. However, the current processing times to renew green card is about one year or more. So what happens when you have about 6 months of expired green card, but have not received the new one. Check out the Frequently asked questions below.
The application for the ten-year green card renewal is the I-90 application.
What should I expect once I submit the I-90 application?
First you submit the application to renew green card by mail or online and along with the filing fee. Then you can expect to receive a biometrics notice so that you can provide fingerprints to USCIS. Lately however, USCIS has been able to use previously capture fingerprints and they electronically review them. So you may instead receive a notice that says, we have been able to reuse your fingerprints, we do not need you to appear for a new appointment. The notice looks like this below. And the content is the same for many different types of applications.
When do I renew my 2-year temporary Green card.
If your green card is valid only for two years and it was through marriage, you need to submit an Application to Remove conditions and thus to renew green card with it. There are different scenarios on when and how you renew your 2-year green card.
Joint renewal of the green card.
If you are still married and still residing with the spouse through whom you obtained permanent residence, then to renew your green card is through a joint petition. What does “jointly” mean? It means that both you and your spouse sign and date the petition telling USCIS that they should renew your card and send you a permanent one. When you submit a joint petition you typically also submit proof of your bona-fide marriage. This proof is usually joint documents such as lease/mortgage, tax returns, joint bank statements, bills, photos etc.
In addition, your joint petitions must be file no earlier than 90 days from the expiration, and obviously not later than the date of expiration. So you have a 90-day window of when you can submit your joint petition with USCIS.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (I-90 renewals)
My Green card expired and the renewal application will take a long time. I need to travel. What can I do?
If you need to travel overseas, you can ask for an Infopass appointment at your local office. The officer can stamp your passport with an I-551 stamp which is a temporary proof of LPR status. Do not travel if you do not have this stamp and your Green card is expired.
My green card expired but I need proof for my I-9 employment verification. What Can I do?
You can schedule an Infopass appointment at your local office and ask for an I-551 stamp in your passport, which serves as temporary proof of your permanent residence. An I-551 stamp is an acceptable document on List A for I-9 verification purpose. You can find the list here.
Frequently Asked Questions (I-751 renewals)
f you are late in filing you I-751, your green card is no longer valid for travel and for employment. Another risk is that you may receive a notice telling you that the government is placing you in removal proceedings.
You will need to provide an explanation of why you were late in filing. Depending on the reasons why you were later, you may still be able to successfully obtain your permanent green card.
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