What a green card gives you
As a permanent resident you can live anywhere in the U.S., work at any legal job you choose, and you're protected by federal, state and local law. You can petition for your spouse and your unmarried children. Most cards are valid for 10 years, and you renew yours with Form I-90 once it's within six months of expiring. Once you file, the receipt notice extends your card's validity for 36 months past the date printed on it.
The status comes with duties too. If you're 18 or older, you have to carry your card. You file income taxes like any resident, and men ages 18 through 25 register with Selective Service. You also can't vote, in federal, state or local elections. And permanent residence can be lost: a conviction for certain crimes can lead to removal, and living outside the U.S. for long stretches can be treated as giving up your residence.
What citizenship adds
A U.S. passport lets you ask the U.S. government for help when you're overseas.
As a citizen you can petition for your parents and your brothers and sisters once you're 21, and for married sons and daughters. Your spouse, your unmarried children under 21 and your parents count as immediate relatives, so they don't wait for a visa number. Relatives of green card holders do wait, in preference categories that can take years.
A child under 18 who has a green card and lives in the U.S. in your legal and physical custody becomes a citizen automatically when you naturalize.
Some government jobs are open only to citizens.
Many green card holders in the Rio Grande Valley were born in Mexico and worry about losing their Mexican nationality. Under Mexico's constitution, no Mexican by birth can be deprived of it, and since 1998 Mexican law has allowed Mexicans by birth to hold another nationality. You'll still enter and leave Mexico as a Mexican national.
When you can apply for citizenship
The usual path is five years as a permanent resident. If you've been married to and living with a U.S. citizen for three years, and your spouse has been a citizen that whole time, the wait drops to three years. You also need to have been physically in the U.S. for half that period (30 months on the five-year path, 18 months on the three-year path) and to have lived for three months in Texas or in your USCIS district before you file. You can send the application, Form N-400, up to 90 days before you reach the five- or three-year mark.
Trips abroad count against you. An absence of more than six months but less than a year is presumed to break your continuous residence, though you can try to show you kept your job, your home and your family here. An absence of a year or more breaks it outright.
The filing fee is $760 on paper or $710 online, with a reduced fee and a fee waiver for applicants who qualify by income. Fees change, so check the USCIS fee schedule before you file. For applicants in Hidalgo County, fingerprints are taken at the McAllen Application Support Center and the interview happens at the USCIS Rio Grande Valley Field Office in Edinburg. At the interview you take the English test and the civics test, which since October 2025 means answering up to 20 of 128 possible questions and getting 12 right. If you fail a part, you get one retest 60 to 90 days later.
What to check before you apply
The N-400 asks about your whole history, and the officer reads your answers against your file. These are the problems worth checking first:
- Arrests and convictions, including ones that were dismissed or expunged. Expunged offenses still have to be disclosed on the form.
- Voting or a claim to be a citizen. Registering to vote, voting, or checking "U.S. citizen" on a form such as an I-9 or a voter registration card can bar you from naturalizing. USCIS issued a new alert on unlawful voting and false claims to citizenship in August 2025.
- Long trips, using the six-month and one-year rules above.
- Good moral character. Since an August 2025 policy memo, officers weigh your conduct as a whole during the waiting period, so problems outside the listed bars can still count against you.
Apart from a few permanent bars, such as a murder conviction or an aggravated felony, these issues don't automatically end your chances. The order matters, though: a problem is easier to deal with before you file than after an officer finds it.
Which path fits your situation
If you've had your card for the required time, with no arrests and no long trips, you're usually ready to file. If anything on that list applies to you, keep renewing your green card on time and have a McAllen citizenship lawyer read your file before you send the N-400.
Bring your green card, your passport, any court papers, and a list of every trip outside the U.S. with the dates. Much of the interview turns on those dates. If your situation involves more than naturalization, such as a relative's petition or an old removal order, a McAllen immigration lawyer can review that part of your file as well.
This article is general information. It is not medical or legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Read our disclaimer.
J.D., Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Licensed in Texas, admitted to the Southern District of Texas. Handles personal injury and immigration cases at Alex Martinez Law.
