Transcript:
Speaker 1:
What are some common misconceptions about green cards?
Speaker 2:
Let’s see. How many do you need?
Speaker 1:
Green cards?
Speaker 2:
How many do you need? How many misconceptions?
Speaker 1:
I don’t know. It just says what are common misconceptions? I would go with three. An odd number’s always good. If you can only think of less than that, that’s fine.
Speaker 2:
Okay. What are some common misconceptions about green cards. There are many misconceptions about green cards and literally, we make a lot of money from people who misunderstand what that permanent resident card means. Probably go through two or three of those misconceptions. The first misconception is I don’t have to live here in the United States if I have a permanent green card. I can go to my country, live there the majority of the year and come here for a couple of days and then go back. That’s just the wrong answer. Because when you get that permanent resident card, you are telling the US government that you are expecting to make the United States your actual permanent residence. So you’re going to be spending more time here than living outside in your country, outside the United States, even if not in your country, if you work in a third country. So that’s the first misconception.
It’s not permanent. It could also be taken away. So that’s the second misconception that I want to talk about. So if you, for example, committed a serious crime, which is an aggravated felony, you get into trouble too many times, you stay outside the country for more than 180 days, and even worse, if you stay outside the country for more than a year, the government will literally take away that green card from you. So it could be taken away. So in addition to the first misconception is I can live in my country and still be a permanent resident, the second one is that it cannot be taken away and it really can be.
And the third misconception, which I actually absolutely hate when clients do, is that I can do everything a United States citizen does, including voting, I swear to you, voting or registering to vote or telling someone that you are a US citizen, and that’s a misconception between citizenship and permanent residency. If you tell someone that you are a US citizen or put on a W-9 that you are a US citizen instead of a permanent resident, that could be the kiss of death for your green card. And there is no waiver for you when you tell someone in an official capacity that you are a US citizen. So these are the three misconceptions about the green cards that I would like to talk about.