From when is the greencard effective ?

B

badprapan2

Registered Users (C)
As all of you know, the GC processing takes such a long time. I got my plastic card recently. My I-485 application date was March 1999. So my GC has \'resident since\' of March 1999. Does that period count towards the 5 year wait time to apply for citizenship ? Or it is the date we got our passport stampled (Around Feb 2002)? How does this work. Please advice.

Thanks in advance
 
No Title

It should be the approval date of your I485 and the residen since date
on your card should be also your I485 approval date (usually a few weeks before your stamping date)
 
Thanks americanwannable and joef for your kind response.

But I would like to know why the I-485 approval date and the \'resident since\' on the GC should match ? Considering the wait times these days INS might have made a new rule making it effective from the date of approval. I am not pretty sure about it though. Anybody who has the knowledge about it ? Please post.
 
No Title

It does not matter. In the eyes of the INS, only a permanent
resident is a resident and you become a permanent resident
only when your I-485 is approved (AOS) or set your foot in the
USA (CP).
 
It is the day your passport is stamped

It is the day you go to INS and get your passport stamped. Of course, this was my experience six years ago. Things might change now because of this IBIS check.
 
?????interesting

this is very interesting
there is basically three important date :
-approval of I 485
-interview and passport stamp (which can be 6-9 month after the approval)
-date of issue of your green card (which can be 2-4 month ater stamping )
now if you counting towards your five year continous of residency to apply for citizenship which date do you consider ?????
 
JoeF is correct: important date is the approval date

the permanent residence period starts when the I-485 is approved.
NOT date of application filing (this is also called priority date).
NOT date of issuance of green card.

There are only very limited situations when this date will be prior to the date of interview. If your dates are different, go to your INS office for clarification/repairs.
   
Normally, the approval date will be the day of interview unless you are provided a notice of discrepancy (please bring additional documents/evidence...) upon approval the 5-year and 3-year clocks start for naturalization.

If you bring your passport to the interview, the interviewing officer will stamp it, assuming you are approved.
 
permanent residence in Consular Processing is date of admission

Minor correction/amplification:

Two manners of becoming permanent resident: stateside Adjustment of Status as mentioned in my previous post. INS can place a temporary stamp in the passport indicating when permanent residence began, this should be the date of the approval of the I-485, assuming a visa was available on that date. (The dates can be different if visa was not available on that date, called preference cases.)

Consular Processing which provides permanent residence on the date of admission to the US as a permanent residence. The Immigration Inspector should have placed a stamp in the passport indicating when permanent residence began. Permanent resident admission will not occur unless the visa is available on that date.
 
Actually, a bizarre case is that a person's I485
is approved while the applicant is travelling
outside the USA (say, on Advance parole).
He then come back to the USA some time later.

Should the resident since date be the I-485 approval
date or the date he reurn?
 
Date on GC card should be final

I got GC stamp in Aug 1997. Approval date should be couple of months ahead. I did not have interview. However, my date on Card is Oct. 1997. I checked N-400 instruction, it clearly says that 5/3 year should start based on date on Card.

To put myself in safe side, I use the date whichever is later.
 
Dates mismatch

Isn't the date for 485 approval, PP stamp, Card always different because these events happen on different dates?

JoeF were your dates the same for all three?
 
Don't go by the date printed on your greencard! The only date relevant is the date you were approved to be a resident.
The same thing happened to me, INS printed my date of entry on my greencard as the "resident since" date. The result was my N-400 application being denied because at the time of interview I was 45 days short of 5 years as a resident. The fact that INS printed an incorrect date on my card did not matter. Now I have to re-apply and pay the fees again.
 
puplfiction

So what you are saying is that I should look at the I-485 approval date and calculate 4 yr 9 months from that date. I should be able to apply after that? Is this correct?
 
JoeF

I think 485 process works differently with regards to dates. My 485 approval date is in June but Card date is in November. Similar with wife too. A few of my friends also have similar scenarios (all 485s).

The instructions mention Card date is the reference point. I guess there's no harm in waiting few more months just to be safer.
 
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