The green card is the single most straightforward piece of U.S. immigration documentation from an HR perspective. Once an employee presents it, the paperwork cycle mostly ends. No annual extension, no change-of-employer filing, no countdown to expiration. The card itself does expire (ten years for most categories, two years for conditional residents) but losing the physical card does not end LPR status. Roughly 1.2 million new green cards are issued each year according to USCIS data, and total LPRs in the U.S. sit at around 13 million. For HR teams that hire globally, distinguishing LPR status from other authorization types is the core I-9 literacy everyone on the team needs.
How Green Cards Work for Form I-9 On Form I-9, an unexpired Permanent Resident Card is a List A document. It establishes both identity and work authorization in a single document. The employee does not need to present a separate List B or List C document. If the card is expired, the employee must present current documentation proving continued work authorization, usually through an updated I-551 stamp in their passport or an I-90 receipt.
The 2020 USCIS rule change eliminated the requirement to reverify expired green cards, because LPR status itself does not expire. That said, the employee still needs to maintain a valid card for travel and identification purposes.
What's the Difference Between a Green Card and an EAD? An Employment Authorization Document (EAD) is a separate card issued to certain non-immigrants, asylum applicants, and adjustment applicants. It authorizes work for a specific period, usually one to two years, and must be reverified before it expires. A green card is permanent and does not require reverification.
How HR Handles the Transition From Visa to Green Card Many H-1B, L-1, and O-1 employees eventually transition to green card status. During the transition, the employee typically holds an Adjustment of Status (I-485) pending receipt along with an EAD and advance parole document. Once the green card is approved, the earlier work authorizations are no longer needed and the employee moves from a restricted status to unrestricted employment. Leave eligibility, including FMLA , is unaffected by the status change.
The employee's onboarding record in the HRIS should be updated to reflect the new status. Many companies tag the I-9 record with the new list A document and retain the prior documentation per I-9 retention rules. Payroll setup and W-2 reporting typically don't change when LPR status is granted, but state tax withholding may update if the employee's residency situation shifts.
Green Card Categories and How They Affect HR Green cards come through several main categories: family-based (spouse, parent, child of a U.S. citizen or LPR), employment-based (EB-1 through EB-5), refugee or asylee adjustment, and the diversity visa lottery. The category rarely matters to HR once the card is in hand, but it does affect how long the process took and whether the employer was the sponsor. Employer-sponsored green cards (most commonly EB-2 and EB-3) involve PERM labor certification and can take several years.
Keeping Green Card Documentation Clean Across the I-9 Lifecycle The common HR errors around green cards are minor but costly at audit: reverifying when it isn't required, failing to accept a valid I-551 stamp, or treating an expired card as a loss of status. A clean I-9 program trains the people who actually complete forms on which LPR scenarios require action and which do not. USCIS publishes the Form I-9 acceptable documents list and updates it when categories change. Most green-card errors are training errors, not systemic compliance gaps, and an annual refresher is the simplest way to keep the process tight.
.svg)
.svg)
