A permanent resident must carry a valid green card at all times; that is the law, and filing for naturalization does not suspend it. A ten-year card is renewed, or a lost, stolen, damaged or incorrect card replaced, on Form I-90. A two-year conditional card is not renewed at all; the conditions are removed on Form I-751 for marriage cases or I-829 for investors. Confusing the two is the most common error, and it costs months.
Form I-90
The current edition is dated 01/20/25, and every page filed must come from the same edition or the filing is rejected. It can be filed online through a USCIS account or on paper to the Phoenix lockbox; online filing is unavailable to anyone requesting a fee waiver. The fee is $465 on paper or $415 online.
A permanent resident who turns 14 in the United States must also file an I-90 within 30 days of the birthday, to re-register and be fingerprinted. That is the registration requirement of 1940, and it has been enforced since April 2025.
The receipt notice
Since September 10, 2024, the I-90 receipt notice extends the validity of the expiring card by 36 months from the expiration date printed on it, up from 24. Presented together with the expired card, the Form I-797 receipt is evidence of continued status and of employment authorization, and it satisfies Form I-9. Anyone who filed before that date received an amended notice carrying the longer extension.
For a pending I-751 or I-829, the receipt notice extends conditional status by 48 months beyond the printed date, and it can be presented with the expired card for work and for travel.
Carry both documents. A receipt notice alone proves nothing to an airline or an employer.
Form I-751 and the 90-day window
A conditional resident who obtained the card through marriage files the I-751 during the 90 days immediately before the conditional residence expires. File a day early and the petition is rejected; file late without a good reason and the status lapses. USCIS publishes a date calculator for exactly this purpose. The fee is $750 on paper or $700 online.
A stepchild who was not included in the parent's petition may file a separate joint petition with the stepparent at any time before the status expires. Where the marriage has ended, or where filing jointly is impossible, the joint filing requirement can be waived on several grounds, including extreme hardship, and a waiver petition may be filed outside the 90-day window.
The re-reviews
This is the part that is new. On March 30, 2026 USCIS published an update on what it calls strengthened screening and vetting, revised in June. Its premise, stated in the document, is that past vetting was inadequate and that people were approved and naturalized who should not have been. The measures it lists:
- shorter validity on certain work permits, to force more frequent security checks, and tighter controls on photograph reuse and biometric verification
- expanded social media and financial vetting, and community interviews
- a vetting center operation re-interviewing refugees and reviewing the merits of their claims
- automatic alerts on new biometric matches and criminal information, and mandatory final checks against State Department records before any approval
- guidance aligning interview resources to country-specific risk
The hold-and-review memos that froze applications from nationals of 39 countries were vacated by a federal court on June 5. The vetting measures were not; they apply to everyone, and a green card holder from any country can now receive a re-interview notice about a case closed years ago.
What to do
- File the I-90 before the card expires, and keep the receipt notice with the expired card until the new one arrives.
- File the I-751 on the first day of the 90-day window. Not before. Set a reminder from the calculator.
- If you are conditional and the marriage has ended, see a lawyer about the waiver before the window rather than during it.
- Keep the original case file: the petition, the relationship evidence, the interview notices. A re-review is a second adjudication of the first case, and the evidence that won it is the evidence that defends it.
- Answer a re-interview notice with counsel, not alone.
The card in your wallet is a document. The status it represents is a record at an agency that has decided to read its records again. Keep yours complete.