What Does the Permanent Residency Card Look Like?

The United States Permanent Resident Card, also known as a Green CardvisaThe actual U.S. Permanent Resident Card is not actually green, though it once was, but instead is white or an off-white shade. The card reads "Permanent Resident Card" across the top in capital letters and lists the card holder's name in the format "Last Name, First Name" next. Processing down the card, in the next row, there are three key elements. On the left block is a suitable photo of the green card holder. On the right block is a fingerprint of the resident that was taken by a Citizenship and Immigration Services officer and processed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the middle block is essential human-readable identification information. This includes your nine-digit alien registration number (also known as an A#), the holder's birth date, an immigration category code, the immigrant's gender, his or her country of birth, the card's expiration date, and the first date of residency of the permanent resident.

The bottom half of the green card is devoted to a complex code that is most easily read by computer devices, but can be parsed out by a human processor. There are three lines composed of a mix of code letter-number binaries that serve to identify you, the subject, against official records.

The top line, from left to right, encapsulates this information: whether you are a United States resident or a resident commuter, the country issuing your Permanent Resident Card (presumably, the United States), again, your A number, and your case number. The middle line of the green card, from left to right, contains this data: your birth date, your sex, the card's expiration date, and your country of birth. The bottom line contains your last, first and middle names and your father and mother's first initials, space permitting. Any blank spaces are denoted by one or two brackets (">", ">>").

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