Green Cards are federal identity documents issued to citizens of foreign countries who seek to remain in America on a permanent basis and these cards are issued to the permanent residents as proof of their status. Hence, it is the responsibility of a permanent resident to keep his card safe. As the Green Cards issued by the USCIS are good only for ten years, permanent residents must renew their cards every ten years. They must not hold invalid Green Cards and they are likely to get into trouble if their Green Cards are outdated.
That is the reason why Form I-90 is common and Form I-90 is the Green Card renewal form and all the permanent residents must file this USCIS form to renew their Green Cards. Moreover, people who lose their Green Cards must also file this form to replace their existing cards and to get new Green Cards. Green Card holders who need to renew or replace their permanent resident cards must obtain the latest edition of Form I-90. That is because USCIS at times updates the forms and it will not accept the outdated versions of immigration forms. Hence, an applicant who applies for immigration benefits must make sure that he is filing the latest version of the form.
Now USCIS has made few changes to Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card and now this form resembles Form I-821D. Form I-821D is the USCIS form that must be filed by undocumented immigrants, to request deferred action. Serial numbers, social security numbers, addresses, combos for alien registration numbers and phone numbers, are changed and all these changes give a new look to Form I-90. Serial codes in all the four pages of Form I-90 have been changed. Similarly, USCIS has also changed the order of Form I-90’s fields and the expiration date of Form I-90. USCIS will no more accept the previous version of Form I-90 and the applicants are advised to use the latest version of Form I-90, dated 12/17/12.