USCIS and Residency Documents

This hub covers the documents that prove someone may live and work in the United States. USCIS and residency documents carry consequences a bar never sees: they decide who can work, who can travel, and who can stay.

The two cards that do most of the work

A green card is proof of lawful permanent residence in wallet form. An employment authorization document, often shortened to EAD, comes from USCIS and lets its holder work while another application moves through the system. Both cards look simple, and both carry data that gets checked against federal records rather than just the printed design.

One concrete example: the category code on an EAD, something like C09, tells an employer exactly which application the work permit is tied to. A checker who knows the codes can spot a card whose code does not match its holder's situation in seconds, and the guide lists what the common codes mean.

Why these documents get checked against records

With a driver's license, the check is mostly the card itself. With USCIS documents, the card is one input and the record is the other. A document number that does not match the status in the system fails the check even when the card is genuine, which is why the guides spend time on the numbers and what they mean.

Start here

• What a green card shows and how it is checked
• What a USCIS employment authorization card shows

Both guides cover what the card shows, how it is checked, and the immigration consequences of getting any of it wrong. For travel papers tied to status, the travel and border documents hub covers the passport-adjacent side.