AmerLisa

Ever see "Born in East LA"?

benblaney

Do you fly domestically with your passport, then? I fly domestically with just my CO DL. I've never been asked my immigration status.

chartreuse

I always carry mine. I've shown it twice, as ID - once when opening a bank account (before getting my DL) and once as one of the valid forms of ID for getting a PO box (because I couldn't be arsed to go back out to the truck to get my insurance card). I have had to refer to it when filling in my alien reg # of the forms, when buying firearms, but could eliminate that if I just memorised the number.

robin1234

I still have my first green card (1976-1979) as a souvenir. They were bigger in those days, and blue. When I surrendered it on returning to the UK to live, they punched a hole in it and returned it to me.

Living in northern New York, we get stopped by the border patrol very frequently, so I carried my green card with me at all times (now I'm a citizen.).. Not too difficult, since it was just sitting in my wallet next to my drivers license.

deng890

Before becoming a US citizen I rarely carried mine.

It was a cost/ benefit analysis I did after my first greencard was lost in the mail (sent to the incorrect address by INS) and I had to go through an awful process to replace it....it took nearly 2 years (I kid you not) and 2 trips to the prison-like INS office in downtown Miami (waiting 8 hours in line each time to talk to someone for 5 minutes) before getting it resolved. After that nasty experience I decided I'd rather risk a temporary detention (while they ascertain my legal status) then risk losing my card and going through that hell again.

I was only ever asked for it once, at a checkpoint in Vermont. They gave me a verbal warning for not carrying it with me and let me go on my way. I got the feeling that Border Patrol have bigger fish to fry than legal residents not carrying their greencards.

Admittedly, I think the replacement process is a lot less burdensome, what with Infopass, online appointments etc.

orangemirror

I keep mine in my wallet. Sometimes when we go out for a drink after work I like to whip it out and wave it in the face of some of my workmates who are here on a visa and gloat a bit. I only do it to the ones I don't like.

Dan725

Before getting my citizenship, I generally did carry it. Not through any conscious decision to do so though....I just kept it in my wallet next to my drivers license.

sir_eccles

I carry mine. I have also driven through lots of those check points on I-10. Interestingly enough each time they just waved us through with a hello and a smile, they didn't even ask if we were citizens. I guess it's because we're white. So it would appear to be clear that they already racially profile.

dakota44

It's good to be the white guy. To paraphrase Mel Brooks.

Jerseygirl

They can't ask you for your immigration status...although my husband tells me some of the cops in a nearby town can. This 'new power' happened quite recently.

FWIW I never carried my PP when I had a visa nor my GC. I knew you were supposed to but I was afraid of losing them...especially if I had to make an urgent trip to the UK.

S Folinsky

Comment: The syntax of your comment has a little error in it -- it appears to me that the law changed to requiring the annual registration rather than say that the law was changed to eliminate the annual requirement. It used to be that all aliens had to drop by a post office every January to give their current address. That was eliminated in an "efficiency act" in December 1981, so January 1982 was the first time it was not required. What was retained was the obligation to report every address change. So, an AR-11 should be filed any time an LPR moves.

S Folinsky

Comment: there is a case from the 1940's about an LPR who was not deportable but was excluable due to a minor criminal record. He was gainfully employed as a seaman in coastal trade [never landing foreign]. In early 1942, his ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. He was rescued by a Cuban freighter on the way to Havana. He then returned to the United States. An interesting fact pattern. Another case involved a man in the same situation who took a night-time non-stop train from Detroit to Buffalo. While he was sleeping, the train transited Canada. This finally lead to the 1963 landmark Fleuti decision from the Supreme Court where a person in that situation went to Caliente Race Track in Tijuana for a few hours.

helwardman

I carry mine in my wallet, so pretty much every time I leave the house.
"They" say I should carry it, so I will. The less (potential) problems I make for myself with the USCIS, the better my life will be

frrussre

Yes, maybe thats what it was? After carrying it for so long, took me a long time to stop thinking, I had lost something.

A friends wife & her daughter just got theirs last week, very fancy with big gold strip, made my old one look quite, cheap.

Reg. Frank R.

Noorah101

Then they are in a WHOLE HEAP of trouble!! A non-USC should NEVER claim to be a USC, EVER.

Rene