On Monday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (UCIS) announced that 8,543 individuals will have to send back their green cards, which are also known as Permanent Resident Cards, due to an error that occurred during the production process. The federal agency revealed that the cards, sent out between February and April this year, were printed with an erroneous “Resident Since” date.
The immigration agency released a statement saying that those affected by the recall of the green cards were the spouses of those with US citizenship who had applied for permanent residency using the form 1-751, which is a petition to have conditions on Residence removed. The agency will notify everyone affected by the technical error, either personally or via their attorneys.
Those affected will need to return their green cards in a prepaid envelope within no more than 20 days from receipt of the notice or to return them in person to a US Citizenship and Immigration Services field office. USCIS says the recall in no way impacts on the legal status of permanent residents and that a replacement card will be provided no longer than 15 days after the return of the incorrect one.
The USCIS advisory added that the reason the production error is a problem is due to the fact that the incorrect date provides residents with the wrong details about when they will be able to apply for full US citizenship.