Green Card Renewal: Process, Costs & Timeline

For a lawful permanent resident, the 10-year green card is proof of status, not the status itself. The card expires; the underlying residency does not. Renewing the card means filing Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card. Across 2024 and 2025, several rules on fees, automatic extensions, and processing changed. This guide explains, for employees and employers, what renewal involves in 2026: which form applies, what it costs, how long it takes, and what an expired card paired with a receipt notice supports at work and at the border.

Green Card Renewal Timeline: From Filing to New Card

The renewal path runs from confirming the correct form to receiving the new card by mail. For a clean Form I-90, the active steps are front-loaded: a single filing, a short biometrics appointment if one is scheduled, then a waiting period. The 36-month extension on the receipt notice keeps work authorization and travel documentation intact throughout that wait.

Phase 1: Confirm Which Form Applies

The expiration field on the card indicates which process applies.

• 10-year card (standard permanent resident): Renewal uses Form I-90. It applies when a card is expiring, has expired, or was lost, stolen, damaged, contains incorrect information, or needs a name or biographic update.
• 2-year card (conditional permanent resident): Form I-90 does not apply. Marriage-based conditional residents file Form I-751, and investor-based conditional residents file Form I-829 to remove the conditions on residency. These are covered below.

USCIS does not treat an I-90 filed in place of a required I-751 as a valid renewal. The USCIS conditional residence guidance sets out how to identify the category.

Phase 2: Documents and Filing

Form I-90 carries a light evidentiary burden. A standard renewal involves:

• A copy of the current or expired green card, front and back.
• A government-issued photo identification document.
• Supporting documents only where the reason requires them, such as a marriage certificate or court order for a name change, or a police report for a stolen card.

There are two filing methods:

• Online: A free account at my.uscis.gov supports completing the form, uploading documents, and paying through Pay.gov. Online filing costs fifty dollars less and allows case tracking in the same account.
• Paper: The form is mailed to the USCIS lockbox listed on the Form I-90 page, with payment by credit or debit card (Form G-1450) or bank withdrawal (Form G-1650). Paper filing is required when requesting a fee waiver.

USCIS accepts Form I-90 up to six months before a card's expiration date. Filing within that window places the 36-month extension before any gap, which matters where employment depends on uninterrupted proof of work authorization.

Phase 3: Biometrics and USCIS Processing

After filing, USCIS may schedule a biometrics appointment at a local Application Support Center to capture fingerprints, photo, and signature. The appointment is brief, and in many cases USCIS reuses existing biometrics and waives it. A standard I-90 involves no interview.

The case then moves to adjudication. Because USCIS adjudicates Form I-90 centrally, processing is uniform nationwide and does not vary by field office. As of June 2026, the USCIS processing times tool reports a single median of about 9 months for Form I-90 (a reported USCIS median of 9.2 months as of February 28, 2026), up from about 4 months at the end of FY2025. USCIS updates this figure monthly, so the tool shows the current number for the case type. The 36-month extension covers the applicant throughout.

A delay in receiving the physical card does not affect legal status. Lawful permanent residence continues whether the card is expired or still in production, and the receipt notice serves as proof in the meantime.

Green Card Renewal Costs in 2026

USCIS restructured its fees effective April 1, 2024, and those amounts remain the baseline for Form I-90 in 2026. Fee adjustments in 2026 under Public Law 119-21 applied to other forms and did not change the I-90 fee. For Form I-90, the filing fee is:

• Online filing: $415
• Paper filing: $465
• Biometric services: included in the base fee, with no separate biometrics charge.

Certain reasons carry no fee at all. There is no charge where a card was issued but never delivered, or where a card contains incorrect information because of a Department of Homeland Security error. For income at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, a fee waiver may be requested using Form I-912, which requires paper filing.

For conditional residents, the Form I-751 filing fee is $750 by paper, or $700 online. USCIS filing fees are paid to the government and are separate from any professional service fee.

Alma is an attorney-led, technology-enabled immigration law firm that handles green card and visa matters for individuals and employers. Per Alma's pricing page, fees are transparent and charged upfront, with the case fee covering attorney expertise, paralegal support, platform access, compliance tracking, and employee communication, while USCIS government filing fees are billed separately because they vary by case.

How to Check Green Card Renewal Status

Once USCIS accepts a filing, it issues a receipt notice (Form I-797C) with a 13-character receipt number. Per USCIS, this number is three letters followed by ten digits; cases filed online begin with the prefix "IOE."

Case status is available at egov.uscis.gov/casestatus. A few points help:

• A case usually becomes searchable in the system within a few days of filing, while a mailed receipt notice generally arrives within about two to four weeks.
• USCIS updates statuses in batches, so weekly checks are sufficient.
• Email and text alerts through a USCIS online account flag a request for evidence or an appointment notice.

Common statuses include "Case Was Received" (the filing is logged) and "Case Was Approved" (the new card is in production). A request for evidence is less common for I-90 and appears when USCIS needs additional documentation. A case running well beyond the posted processing time can be raised through a case inquiry in the account.

What the Automatic Extension Means for Work and Travel

The defining feature of a green card renewal in 2026 is the 36-month automatic extension. Per USCIS, receipt notices issued on or after September 10, 2024 extend the validity of an expired card for 36 months from the date printed on it, up from the previous 24 months. The I-797C receipt notice together with the expired green card serves as proof of status.

For Employers and the I-9

An expired green card presented alongside the I-90 receipt notice is acceptable evidence of identity and work authorization on Form I-9. Per USCIS I-9 guidance, employers treat the receipt notice as extending the card for the stated period and do not reverify a current employee earlier than the extension allows.

Proof of Status Without the Card

Where a card is lost or stolen, or a card and any extension have lapsed while a case is pending, a temporary I-551 stamp, often called an ADIT stamp, is available through the USCIS Contact Center. USCIS either mails a temporary evidence document or schedules an in-person field office appointment. The stamp is placed in the passport or on a Form I-94 and serves as valid proof of permanent residence for work and travel until the new card arrives.

Travel With an Expired Card

For trips abroad of less than one year, re-entry to the United States is generally possible using the expired 10-year card together with the I-90 receipt notice. Where a card is lost or stolen abroad and boarding is not possible, a boarding document is available at the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, with Form I-90 filed after return. Trips of one year or longer call for a re-entry permit (Form I-131) obtained before departure, because long absences can place residency itself at risk. The USCIS travel guidance describes what to bring.

Conditional Residents: Why Form I-751 Is Not a Renewal

A green card valid for only two years indicates conditional permanent residence, most often through marriage to a U.S. citizen or through an investor category. Form I-90 does not renew this card. Instead, the conditions are removed:

• Marriage-based conditional residents file Form I-751, generally during the 90-day window immediately before the 2-year card expires.
• Investor-based conditional residents file Form I-829 on a similar timeline.

The receipt notice for these petitions extends the existing card for 48 months, a longer window than the I-90 extension because removal-of-conditions cases tend to take longer. Waivers of the joint filing requirement exist in certain qualifying situations. After USCIS approves the petition, the result is a 10-year card, later renewed with Form I-90. The USCIS conditional residence page lays out the requirements.

A separate point concerns the Employment Authorization Document (Form I-765): the automatic extension for EAD renewals was eliminated for applications filed on or after October 30, 2025 under an interim final rule in effect as of June 2026, while renewals filed before that date keep the prior extension of up to 540 days. This change does not affect the 36-month I-90 green card extension.

Renewal or Naturalization

A green card held long enough to qualify for U.S. citizenship, generally five years, or three years for an applicant married to and living with a U.S. citizen, opens the option of filing Form N-400 for naturalization rather than renewing the card. A properly filed N-400 also generates a receipt notice that extends the green card for 24 months while the case is pending. Naturalization ends the renewal cycle, with its own eligibility tests and timeline, and valid proof of status continues throughout. Where citizenship is years away or eligibility is uncertain, renewal with Form I-90 remains available.

Why Choose Alma for a Green Card

A clean Form I-90 renewal is one of the few immigration filings many people complete on their own. The value of a platform like Alma shows up when the situation is not clean: a legal name change tied to the card, an extended period abroad, an expired card while stuck overseas, prior status issues, any criminal history, or uncertainty about whether a two-year card means conditional residence requiring Form I-751 instead.

Per Alma's pricing page, pricing is a transparent flat fee charged upfront, with no hourly surprises, and the case fee covers attorney work, paralegal support, platform access, and compliance tracking. USCIS government filing fees are billed separately because they vary by case. Documents are uploaded into a secure system, progress is tracked in real time, and work is handled by a dedicated attorney rather than rotating staff. Alma also offers a 50/50 payment plan for businesses that prefer to split costs, and volume discounts for companies managing larger foreign national populations. For employers, Alma's business services keep filings and I-9 documentation organized across a team.

Alma offers consultations to confirm the category and the applicable filing before anything is submitted to USCIS.