Happen to run across this in the M-476 manual:

Permanent Resident – A
Permanent Resident is a person
who has been granted permanent
resident status in the United States
and has (or is waiting for) a
Permanent Resident Card.

For marriage on the N-400, we checked this box.

I have been a Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States for at least three years, and I
have been married to and living with the same U.S. citizen for the last three years, and my
spouse has been a U.S. citizen for the last three years.

For this question we put the date that my wife received her permanent resident card, well that conditional one anyway.

C. Date You Became a Permanent Resident (mm/dd/yyyy)

But shouldn't we have put the date on her I-797c that came in shortly after our attorney submitted her I-485? He told us once the I-485 and all those other forms were submitted, she is legal to stay here, but it took almost a year to get that green card. Couldn't we have applied for her N-400 over a year ago?

I mean the USCIS is saying (or is waiting for) a Permanent Resident Card
so by their law, she was a permanent resident for that period of time. So why didn't we count it?

Permanent residence status begins the moment USCIS APPROVES LPR status, NOT when the I-485 was submited.

Status for a person without green-card while waiting for I-485 approval is. "I-485 pending" the alien is allowed to remain in the USA until a decision is made on the I-485. The time they are waiting for I-485 approval they are considered to be a NON-Resident visitor. K-Visa is a NON-Immigrant visa.

Adding Lawful to permanent resident is redundant, either you are a permanent resident or not.

But I can only reply, why does the USCIS define a permanent resident as one that is waiting for a permanent resident card?

They don't. They define a permanent resident as "a person who has been granted permanent resident status in the United States". The phrase "and has (or is waiting for) a Permanent Resident Card." is merely clarification. They always issue a permanent resident card to anyone who has been granted permanent resident status, but it may take some time after the status is granted for the card to arrive. Someone who has been granted LPR status but is still waiting for the card is nevertheless a LPR.


The easier way to clarify this is, if you have a green card, it has a "resident since" date printed on it. THAT is the date to use when calculating how much time you have had LPR status. It's not the date you filed, not the date the card arrived in the mail, but the date permanent resident status was granted.

LOL, that is what my understanding was and the date we went by for filing the N-400, the date her card was first issued smack on the card. But questioned why the USCIS was defining a permanent resident that way in the M-476 handbook. Ha, the more you read about the USCIS, the more you get confused.

Would be fun to copy that page and use the date of the first I-797C just to learn what they would say on an N-400 application, if I could only turn the clock back a year.