As of December 12, 2022, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has updated its policy manual to provide twenty four month automatic extensions to Green Card expirations to Lawful Permanent Residents (“LPRs”) applying for naturalization when they properly file an N-400, Application for Naturalization. The automatic extension applies to those LPRs filing N-400s on or after the 12th of December 2022.

Devised as a measure to aid naturalization applicants experiencing longer than usual processing time, applicants will receive the new two-year extension to their Green Cards regardless of whether or not they previously filed a Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card. Naturalization applicants faced with expiring Green Cards are no longer required to take additional steps to obtain proof of their continuing LPR status as they await USCIS adjudication of their Form N-400 applications. USCIS receipt notices issued to N-400 applicants with the new automatic extension may be presented with an expired Green Card as evidence of continued LPR status. The receipt notice may be presented with the expired Green Card as evidence of “continued status as well as identity and employment authorization under List A of Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9), if presented before the expiration of the 24-month extension period provided in the notice.”

LPRs who filed for naturalization before the change in policy on December 12, 2022 will not receive a Form N-400 receipt notice with the automatic extension. If they are facing expiration of their Green Cards, applicants must still file Form I-90, if they filed Form N-400 less than six months before their Green Card expiration date or receive an Alien Documentation, Identification, and Telecommunications (“ADIT”) stamp at a USCIS Field Office by contacting the USCIS Contact Center in their passport, in order to maintain valid evidence of their LPR status, for those who filed Form N-400 at least six months before the expiration of their Green Card. “This is because noncitizens must carry within their personal possession proof of registration, such as the Green Card and any evidence of extensions or may be subject to criminal prosecution under INA 264(e).”

This automatic extension should aid the current reported processing time for Form I-90, which is currently reported to be eighteen months for eighty percent of cases filed. It also reinforces the Biden Administration’s commitment to Executive Order 14012 to restore faith in the legal immigration systems.