Green Card

USCIS Color Photo Specifications

What this page covers. This page explains how photograph requirements are set, who takes the photograph, and where the governing specification is published. It is an orientation rather than a specification, and it deliberately omits dimensions, file sizes and time limits, which are revised without notice and are reliable only at their source.

Work Authorization While an Adjustment of Status Application Is Pending

Two different permissions. Filing Form I-485 does not by itself authorize employment, and it does not by itself cancel employment authorization that already exists. Those are separate permissions with separate sources, and an adjustment applicant may hold one, both or neither. The question is therefore not whether an Employment Authorization Document has arrived, but which permission is being relied on at any given moment.

Adjustment of Status

What adjustment of status is. Adjustment of status is the procedure for becoming a permanent resident without leaving the United States. It is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1255 and by the regulations at 8 C.F.R. part 245. The alternative is consular processing, in which the immigrant visa is issued at a post abroad and permanent residence begins on admission at a port of entry.

By Editorial Team , 18 October 2006

BALCA rules that an employer must state at the BEGINNING of the LABOR CERTIFICATION process if it has MULTIPLE OPENINGS.

On 10/17/06, the U.S. Department of Labor's Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) issued a ruling in a case, Matter of Custom Landscape Construction, Case No. 2005-INA-181 (10/17/06), in which it addressed the circumstances under which an employer can claim that it actually had MULTIPLE OPENINGS.

Reentry Permits

What a reentry permit is, and when it is needed

What a reentry permit is. A reentry permit is a travel document issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to a lawful permanent resident or conditional permanent resident who intends to depart the United States temporarily. It allows the holder to apply for admission on return, during the period of the permit's validity, without first obtaining a returning resident visa from a consular post abroad (which would otherwise be required for absences of one year or more).

Keeping Your Green Card

If you already have a green card, there are certain precautions you should take to keep it, i.e., not have the government take it away.

Other Matters

This section covers a number of miscellaneous topics in U.S. immigration.