Life After Getting Your Green Card: Rights and Responsibilities

Getting a green card is a huge milestone, but it comes with rules you're expected to follow. As a lawful permanent resident (LPR), you can live and work anywhere in the United States, but you also take on real legal duties — reporting your address, registering for Selective Service if you're male, filing U.S. taxes on your worldwide income, and being careful about how long you stay outside the country. You still cannot vote in federal elections, and certain criminal issues can put your status at risk. This article walks through what changes (and what doesn't) once you have your card, and how the road to citizenship works.

What your green card lets you do

• Work for almost any employer. You don't need a separate work permit — your Permanent Resident Card itself proves you're authorized to work for any U.S. employer, in any field (with the exception of certain federal jobs and security-sensitive positions that require citizenship).
• Live anywhere in the U.S. You aren't tied to the employer or family member who sponsored you, and you can move between states freely (though you must report your new address — see below).
• Own property, open bank accounts, get a driver's license — the same as any resident.
• Travel internationally and return, as long as you don't stay away too long or otherwise abandon your residence (details below).
• Apply to bring certain family members to the U.S. as an LPR sponsor, generally your spouse and unmarried children, though the categories and wait times for LPR-sponsored relatives differ from those for U.S. citizens.
• Eventually apply for U.S. citizenship once you meet the residence and physical-presence requirements described below.

What your green card does not let you do

• Vote in federal elections. Federal law makes it a crime for a noncitizen to vote in any election for President, Vice President, or a member of Congress, and it is also illegal to register to vote in federal elections as a noncitizen. A conviction can carry criminal penalties and separately can make you deportable or inadmissible — this is one of the most serious mistakes an LPR can make, so never register or vote in a federal election, and check carefully before participating in any state or local election too, since a small number of localities allow noncitizen voting in local races only and it's easy to get this wrong on a shared ballot.
• Hold most federal jobs or a U.S. passport. Many federal civil-service positions and all U.S. passports are limited to citizens.
• Stay outside the U.S. indefinitely without consequences. Permanent residence assumes you're making the U.S. your home. Long absences can be treated as abandonment of your status (see below).
• Ignore criminal law consequences. Certain criminal convictions — even some that seem minor — can make an LPR deportable or bar naturalization. If you're ever arrested or charged with anything, talk to an immigration attorney before taking a plea, because criminal defense attorneys don't always account for immigration consequences.

Reporting your address: the AR-11 duty

By law, nearly every noncitizen in the U.S., including green card holders, must notify U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of a new address within 10 days of moving — even a local move within the same city. You can do this online through your USCIS online account (the "Change of Address" tool) or by filing paper Form AR-11. If you have a pending application or petition, you may also need to update the address on that specific case separately. Failing to report a change of address is technically a misdemeanor and can complicate future immigration filings, so treat it as routine paperwork to handle every time you move.

Selective Service registration

If you are male and between 18 and 25 years old and living in the U.S., federal law requires you to register with the Selective Service System — this applies to lawful permanent residents the same as it applies to U.S. citizens. Registration should happen within 30 days of turning 18 (or, for those who immigrate at an older age within the 18-25 range, generally within 30 days of arriving in the U.S.); if you missed that window, you generally can still register up until age 26. Failing to register can affect eligibility for federal jobs, state financial aid, and — importantly — can be raised as a "good moral character" issue when you apply for citizenship. You can register at sss.gov, at the post office, or often through a checkbox when you apply for a driver's license.

U.S. taxes: worldwide income

The IRS treats green card holders as resident aliens for tax purposes starting the year you receive the card (this is called the "green card test"). That means you're generally taxed the same way as a U.S. citizen: you must report and may owe U.S. tax on your worldwide income, not just money earned inside the United States, and you keep filing as a resident until you formally abandon your status or it's terminated. This surprises many new LPRs who still have income, property, or accounts abroad. Foreign tax credits and exclusions may reduce double taxation, but the reporting obligation itself doesn't go away just because your green card is expired or you're living abroad — only a formal abandonment of status ends it. If your finances are more than simple, a tax professional experienced with international issues is worth the cost.

Travel: what's allowed, and what puts your status at risk

You can travel outside the U.S. and return using your valid green card, but permanent residence assumes the U.S. is your actual home. Guidelines to keep in mind:

• Short trips are routine and shouldn't cause problems.
• Absences of about six months to a year can start to raise questions about whether you've kept up continuous residence, especially if it happens repeatedly or you can't show strong ties (a home, job, family, filed taxes) back in the U.S.
• An absence of one year or more makes your green card technically invalid as a travel document for reentry and creates a strong presumption that you've abandoned your residence — you may be asked to prove otherwise at the border, or in some cases need a different document to come back.
• If you know in advance you'll be outside the U.S. for more than a year, apply for a reentry permit (Form I-131) before you leave — you generally must be physically present in the U.S. to file and complete biometrics. A valid reentry permit lets you stay out up to two years without that absence alone counting as abandonment.
• If you're stuck abroad more than two years with an expired reentry permit, a returning resident (SB-1) visa process at a U.S. embassy or consulate may be your path back — this is a more involved process reserved for people who stayed out due to circumstances beyond their control, so try to avoid this situation.

Abandonment isn't just about the calendar — immigration officers also look at your intent and whether you kept U.S. ties: a home, a job, family, and continued filing of U.S. tax returns as a resident.

Renewing your card

A standard green card is valid for 10 years (2 years if you have conditional residence through marriage or certain investor categories, which requires a separate step to remove conditions before it expires — see below). File Form I-90 to renew before it expires; USCIS generally recommends starting the process well ahead of the expiration date. Filing the I-90 currently also triggers an automatic extension of your card's validity while the renewal is pending — check the current extension period and instructions on uscis.gov, since USCIS has changed this policy before.

If you have a conditional (2-year) green card

If your green card was granted through a marriage less than two years old at the time of approval, you likely have conditional residence. You must file Form I-751 (Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence) during the 90-day window immediately before your conditional card expires — filing too early can get it rejected. Missing this deadline without a joint filer (for example, due to divorce, a spouse's death, or abuse) has separate filing options, but don't let this deadline pass without acting: failing to timely file can lead to termination of your status. Confirm the current window and any exceptions directly on uscis.gov before your expiration date approaches.

The road to U.S. citizenship

Many green card holders are eventually eligible to naturalize using Form N-400. In general, under the standard rules you need:

• Continuous residence in the U.S. for 5 years as an LPR (or 3 years if you're married to and living with a U.S. citizen spouse and meet related requirements), and
• Physical presence in the U.S. for at least 30 months of that 5-year period (18 months of the 3-year period for the spouse-of-citizen category), and
• Residence for at least 3 months in the USCIS district or state where you're applying, plus good moral character, English and civics knowledge (with some age/disability exceptions), and attachment to constitutional principles.

Absences of six months to a year can disrupt continuous residence unless you can show otherwise, and absences of a year or more generally break it, resetting the clock. Because eligibility rules, required forms, and any waiting-period changes are updated over time, confirm your specific timeline on the USCIS citizenship page before filing.

What to do: staying in good standing

1. Report every address change to USCIS within 10 days (AR-11 or your online account).
2. If you're a man 18-25, register with Selective Service if you haven't already.
3. File U.S. tax returns reporting worldwide income every year you hold the card.
4. Mark your calendar for green card renewal (Form I-90) and, if applicable, the I-751 conditional-residence 90-day filing window — missing that one is a hard deadline.
5. Before any trip abroad longer than several months, think through the abandonment risk and apply for a reentry permit in advance if needed.
6. Never vote or register to vote in a federal election.
7. If you're arrested for anything, however minor it seems, talk to an immigration attorney before agreeing to any plea.
8. When you're eligible, consider naturalizing — it removes most of the ongoing risks described above.

Beware of notario and immigration fraud

Only an attorney licensed to practice law or a representative accredited by the Department of Justice may legally give you immigration legal advice or represent you before USCIS or immigration court. A "notario público," unaccredited "immigration consultant," or someone offering to guarantee results or file paperwork for a large upfront fee outside these categories is not authorized to represent you and can cause serious, sometimes irreversible harm to your case. Verify any attorney's license with your state bar, and confirm accredited representatives through the Department of Justice's EOIR roster.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Immigration rules change and mistakes can have serious consequences — for anything specific to your situation, consult a qualified immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative, and verify current forms, fees, and deadlines at uscis.gov.