Forms

Form I-551

Also called I-551, Green Card, Permanent Resident Card, PRC.

Form I-551, the Permanent Resident Card or green card, is the document 8 CFR 264.1(b) lists as evidence of alien registration for a lawful permanent resident, and an EB-5 investor's first one is issued with a two year expiry because the residence it evidences is conditional.

What it decides

8 CFR 264.1(b) lists Form I-551 as evidence of registration for a lawful permanent resident, and 8 U.S.C. 1304(e) requires every registered alien aged 18 or over to carry it at all times, on pain of a misdemeanor. USCIS says a card may carry no expiry date if it was issued between January 1977 and August 1989, a ten year date, or a two year date, and the two year date is the one an EB-5 investor's first card carries. That card cannot be renewed on Form I-90. Filing Form I-829 within the 90 days before the second anniversary extends conditional resident status automatically until USCIS adjudicates, under 8 CFR 216.6(a)(1)(i), and since January 2023 USCIS has printed a 48 month extension on the Form I-797 receipt notice, which is carried with the expired card as proof of status. No replacement card is issued in the meantime. Not filing terminates the status automatically on that second anniversary and starts removal proceedings, under 8 CFR 216.6(a)(5).

Governed by 8 CFR 264.1(b), evidence of registration; 8 U.S.C. 1304(e), INA 264(e), for the duty to carry it; 8 CFR 216.6(a)(1)(i) for the 90 day window and the automatic extension, and 216.6(a)(5) for termination on failure to file. USCIS Handbook for Employers M-274, section 7.1, last updated 10/17/2023, is the page that states the three card validity patterns and that an expired card plus the Form I-797 I-829 receipt notice is the evidence of status. USCIS Conditional Permanent Residence page, last updated 04/24/2025, states the two year card and that it cannot be renewed. USCIS Remove Conditions on Permanent Residence for Entrepreneurs (Investors) page, last updated 01/23/2023, carries the January 2023 alert setting the extension at 48 months; the older body text on that same page still says six months and should not be relied on.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into form i-551 rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Conditional permanent residenceConditional permanent residence is the status an EB-5 investor and their spouse and children hold for the first two years: full lawful permanent residence, evidenced by a Green Card valid for two years, whose conditional basis must be removed on Form I-829 or the status ends.
Form I-829Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status, is the petition an EB-5 conditional permanent resident files in the 90 days before the second anniversary of that status, asking USCIS to confirm the capital was invested and the ten jobs created and to make the green card unconditional.
Form I-797Form I-797 is not a form anyone completes but the family of notices USCIS sends about a case, a plain I-797 plus suffixes A to F, each carrying a different message, from a receipt to a request for evidence.
Adjustment of statusAdjustment of status is the process under 8 U.S.C. 1255 by which someone already in the United States becomes a permanent resident without leaving, on Form I-485, instead of collecting an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad. An EB-5 investor who adjusts is granted conditional permanent residence for two years, the same status a consular applicant receives on admission.
Form I-90Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (Green Card), is how a permanent resident replaces or renews the card itself, not the status behind it. An EB-5 investor reaches it only after Form I-829 has removed the conditions and the ten year card is expiring, lost, damaged or wrong.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary