Читать книгу U.S. Citizenship For Dummies - Jennifer Gagliardi - Страница 29

A Permanent Resident Card is evidence of your status as a lawful permanent resident. Although in popular lingo it’s called a “green card,” the Permanent Resident Card is officially known as USCIS Form I-551. At one time in its history, the Permanent Resident Card was known as the Alien Registration Receipt Card. The cards used to actually be green, too. Even though today’s cards are no longer green, the name has worked its way into the slang, or popular language, and people still refer to Alien Registration Receipt Cards or Permanent Resident Cards as green cards.

Even if you have a Permanent Resident Card, you’ll have to be fingerprinted and photographed when applying to become a naturalized citizen. After you’ve filed an application with the USCIS, you will receive a fingerprinting appointment letter, usually advising you to go to a local application support center or police station. The USCIS will do a criminal background check, cross-referencing your fingerprints with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In some cases, the quality of the fingerprints is not sufficient for the FBI to read. If this happens, the USCIS will notify you of another fingerprinting appointment. Don’t worry — you’ll only have to pay a fingerprinting fee ($85 as of this writing) once.

If the FBI rejects your fingerprints twice, you’ll most likely be asked to provide police clearances for every place you’ve lived since you were 16 years old. Contact the local police departments in those cities or towns to obtain the clearances. If you’re processing through an overseas consulate, as opposed to adjusting your status while in the United States, you’ll need to provide police clearances for every place you have lived (for your country of nationality if you lived there six months or more; for all other countries, if you lived there for at least one year).

In some cases, especially if you live far away from the nearest fingerprinting station, a mobile fingerprinting van will travel to perform the process.