Just wanted to stress that no one should ever EVER claim to be a USC if they are not. AFAIK this is an abolsute no-no...

I agree on the copy thing but the Feds see it differently. If you look at one of the accompanying documents you get in the pack, it expressly says something like it is a federal offense to make a copy of the GC.

I agree, I should have said that in my post.

When one becomes a USC, one receives a fancy certificate with photo etc. It says it is a federal offense to copy it. However, there was a crackdown on employers hiring illegals in the late eighties; they were supposed to insert a note saying that they had seen the documentation, but that would leave their name in the file if questions came up later, so they xeroxed the certificate. There was no evidence of who broke the law, just an illegal copy.

When I signed up for Social Security, they did the same thing. When I protested, I was told, "We are the government, we do whatever we want."

Our sons' colleges also insisted on us sending them copies not only of our sons' green cards, but ours too. I'm sure this kind of thing happens all the time.