Q : Green Card not Green?
What we know as a "green card" came in a variety of different colors at different times in its history. We still refer to them as "green cards" for the same reason dismissal notices are called "pink slips," sensationalized news is called "yellow journalism," and intended distractions are called "red herrings." In each case, an idea was originally associated with an actual item of the respective color. A Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) alien living in the United States may carry a card that is not green, but refers to it as a "green card." The alien does so because the card bestows benefits, and those benefits came into being at a time when the card was actually green.
Historical Background
The green card is formally known as the Alien Registration Receipt Card, Form I-151 or I-551. The first receipt cards were Form AR-3 (printed on white paper), and were the product of the Alien Registration Act of 1940. Designed as a national defense measure, the Act required all aliens (non-U.S. citizens) within the United States to register with the U.S. Government. They registered at Post Offices, and their registration forms were forwarded to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for processing. After processing, a receipt card (Form AR-3) was mailed to each registrant as proof of their compliance with the law. The Alien Registration Act, however, did not discriminate between legal and illegal alien residents. All were registered, and all received AR-3's in return.
As World War II ended and large-scale immigration to the United States resumed, alien registration ceased to take place at Post Offices and became part of regular immigration procedure. Aliens registered upon entry at the port, and the INS issued different documents to different aliens to serve as their Alien Registration Receipt Cards. Which document an alien received depended on his or her admission status. For example, visitors received an I-94c, temporary foreign laborers received an I-100a, and permanent residents received the I-151. This method not only reduced the number of forms handled by the INS, but helped to identify the immigration status of each alien. Thus the small, green, I-151 had immediate value in identifying its holder as a LPR, entitled to live and work indefinitely in the United States. As early as 1947, LPR's protested delays in processing their I-151's, complaining that employers would not hire them until they could prove their permanent resident status.
Following passage of the Internal Security Act of 1950, new regulations issued by the INS rendered Alien Registration Receipt Card Form I-151 even more valuable. As noted above, the AR-3 Alien Registration Receipt Card (issued primarily in the early 1940's) bore no relation to an alien's legal or illegal status. Effective April 17, 1951, regulations allowed those holding AR-3 cards to have them replaced with a new Form I-151 (the green card). Just as I-151's were only issued to Lawful Permanent Residents entering through ports, only aliens with legal status could have their AR-3 replaced with an I-151. Aliens who applied for replacement cards but could not prove their legal admission into the United States, and for whom the INS had no record of legal admission, did not qualify for LPR status and might even be subject to prosecution for violation of U.S. immigration laws.
Valuable Documents
By 1951, then, the green Alien Registration Receipt Card Form I-151 represented security to its holder. It indicated the right to permanently live and work in the United States and instantly communicated that right to law enforcement officials. As a result of the card's cumbersome official title, aliens, immigration attorneys, and enforcement officers came to refer to it by its color. The term "green card" designated not only the document itself, but also the official status desired by so many legal non-immigrants (students, tourists, temporary workers) and undocumented (illegal) aliens. The status became so desireable that counterfeit Form I-151's became a serious problem. To combat document fraud, the INS issued 19 different designs of the I-151 between its introduction in the 1940's and its complete revision in 1977. One alteration to the design in 1964 was to change the color of the card to blue. The 1964 edition was a pale blue. After 1965, it was a dark blue. Regardless of color, the I-151 still carried with it the benefits indicated by the term "green card," and those who wanted, obtained, issued, or inspected I-151's continued to refer to it by that name.
During the mid-1970's the INS studied methods to produce a counterfeit-proof Alien Registration Receipt Card for Lawful Permanent Residents. The result, introduced in January 1977, was the machine-readable Alien Registration Receipt Card Form I-551. In use today, the I-551 green card has been issued in various colors as well, including pink ("rose") and pink-and-blue. Despite these changes in form number, design, and color, the INS document which represents an alien's right to live and work in the United States will probably always be known as a "Green Card."