Hi,

I am hoping someone out there may be able to shed some light on this situation.

A friend of mine has lived in the US since they were 3, they have a permanent resident number and had a greencard. Their mother took care of all of this but has since passed and now his grandmother is ill and he wants to be able to go and see her. He isn't sure of his status, he doesn;t remember anything about renewal and always took it for granted he was a PR.

He has a SSN and also served in the US marine Corps for 8 years where they issued him with a waiver. He made an appointment to go and see an immigration lawyer to find out more about his situation.

I know this is a very general description but if any of you have any help/advice to offer it would be appreciated.

A Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) is always an LPR. The green card itself may expire but the LPR status does not.

Does your friend still have the last green card he's had? He needs to file Form I-90

If he still has the old version of the green card (that does not have an expiry date), he will still need to get a new one by filing the Form I-90.

What waiver?

The Military would have required evidence of legal status, so dig that out.

Otherwise I agree with the prior poster, if his ast one has expired he needs to get a new one, the indefinite ones if he still has it will probably be OK once for a visit, he is likely to be just told to get a 10 year one on re-entry.