Blackshear, GA Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

NO. If you have a green card (LPR Status) in the United States, this will authorize you to reside and work permanently in the country. Your work permit is no longer valid since the day your green card was adjudicated.

Although divorce records are available directly from the court that granted the divorce, and I presume that you supplied copies of divorce documents to the USCIS when you applied for adjustment of status through your marriage to your current husband, a copy of that divorce decree should be unnecessary in applying for naturalization based upon either (1) five years of Lawful Permanent Resident status or (2) three years of Lawful Permanent status while married to a U.S. citizen spouse. Similarly, if you and your first husband filed joint tax returns, you should be able to get a copy of the transcript directly from the IRS and that would show your former husband's Social Security Number, but knowledge of his Social Security Number should be unnecessary in applying for naturalization based upon (1) or (2).

While the act of filing a Form I-485 Application for Adjustment of Status authorizes continued presence in the U.S. pending adjudication, it does not authorize employment. With no additional filing fee, however, I-485 applicants also may file an application for an Employment Authorization Document ("EAD" or "work permit"), and the USCIS is reasonably reliable in adjudicating and approving applications for EADs and in mailing an EAD card within 60 - 90 days of filing the application. The EAD authorizes any lawful employment while the I-485 application remains pending. Note, however, that it can become necessary to apply to renew the EAD if the USCIS takes a very long time to adjudicate the I-485. Note also that I-485 applications that correspond to certain employment-based visas may create limits on types of appropriate employment. For example, a scientist or researcher whose I-485 application is based upon an approved I-140 application in the Employment-based Second Preference category with Waiver of Labor Certification in the National Interest (EB2/NIW) should be prepared to show that his/her continued employment is in the same scientific field that was the basis of the approved EB2/NIW application.