page_title: Green card
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Green card / History
caption_attribution_description: Alien Registration Receipt Card
context_page_description: A green card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently. Individuals with green cards are known as Lawful Permanent Residents or green card holders. There are an estimated 13.2 million green card holders of whom 8.9 million are eligible for citizenship of the United States. Approximately 65,000 of them serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.
  Green card holders are statutorily entitled to apply for U.S. citizenship after showing by a preponderance of the evidence that they, inter alia, have continuously resided in the United States for at least five years and are persons of good moral character. Those who are younger than 18 years old automatically derive U.S. citizenship if they have at least one U.S. citizen parent.
  Every lawful permanent resident is issued by the U.S. government a "permanent resident card," which is commonly known as a "green card" because of its historical greenish color. It was formerly called "alien registration card" or "alien registration receipt card."
context_section_description: The INA, which was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1952, states that "[t]he term 'alien' means any person not a citizen or national of the United States."
caption: A 1949 "alien registration receipt card" of a female immigrant, which was issued by the now-abolished Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) under the Nationality Act of 1940.
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