Angelika Many believe: Once you have the Green Card, you always have the Green Card. That used to be the case, but today the Green Card, like a passport, loses its validity after ten years, and the holder must take responsibility for renewing it. We also had to deal with this issue this year because our Green Card would have expired in July 2012. Now, the renewal is not quite as time-consuming and nerve-wracking as the initial application, but rather a somewhat expensive bureaucratic formality. You can apply for the renewal at the earliest six months in advance. The immigration authority is keeping up with the times, and the application can be filled out online. It is then electronically sent to the correct branch of the immigration authority, namely in Phoenix, Arizona. We paid the fee of a modest $450 per person right away by credit card. The actual renewal fee is $365, and $85 is due to the re-collection of biometric data, which includes taking fingerprints and creating a new photo.
The form we had to fill out is actually relatively simple. Standard information such as name, address, date of birth, passport and green card numbers had to be provided, as well as the first names of the father and mother, and then our place of residence at the time of the initial application. However, at the end, there are some items like "If you answered this question with yes, then skip the next question and go to question 6." Now, this shouldn't really be a problem since we are both literate, but some world-class programmer who designed the electronic form forgot to number the items in the online version according to the print version. A mess!
First, after about a week, we received confirmation by mail on beautiful paper with a seal (the immigration office doesn't skimp on that) that our money had been received. About three weeks later, another letter arrived, informing us when and where we had to submit our fingerprints. For this purpose, there is the so-called USCI (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) Support Center in San Francisco, an unassuming building on Broadway Street. The employees there are very efficient: there are no long waiting times, and half an hour later, they had scanned our fingerprints and created the new digital photo.
They also put a sticker on our old Green Card to automatically extend it until September, in case the delivery of the new Green Card was delayed and we had planned to travel abroad. However, our brand new Green Card arrived in mid-April, about three months after the application. Funnily enough, Michael's card arrived first. Mine only came in a week later, even though we applied for everything at the same time. It seems a clerk might have dropped their pencil to go on vacation in the meantime. We had a good laugh about that. Now the new Green Card is valid for another 10 years. So we have a bit of peace for now.