Two questions decide the form and the fee: whose error it was, and which document is wrong. I-90, I-765, N-565 and the free typographic error inquiry.
Reviewed by Ekaterina Fitenko, Esq. — Florida Bar #1064536. With 20+ years of experience in the legal field, she advises clients on correcting errors in green cards, work permits and USCIS notices, in English and Russian.
Before you look for a form, answer two questions: who made the mistake, and which document is wrong. Those two answers determine the form, the fee and whether you pay anything at all, and every wrong turn in this topic comes from skipping them.
Whose error decides the money. Where USCIS made the mistake — your application said Aleksandr and the card says Aleksander — the correction is generally made without a fee. Where the error came from your own application, even a typing slip, the correction is a replacement at your expense.
Which document decides the route. A green card, an employment authorization document, a paper notice and a naturalization certificate are corrected through four different mechanisms, and using the mechanism for the wrong one produces a rejection several months later. Find your document in the sections below rather than filing the form a search result suggests.
Do not write on the card, do not use correction fluid, and do not let anyone else do it either. An altered immigration document is treated as an altered document regardless of intent, and the consequences reach far past the original typo.
Keep the incorrect document. USCIS generally requires the erroneous card to be returned when it issues a corrected one, and a card you cannot produce complicates a request that would otherwise be routine. Photograph both sides before you send anything, and keep the photographs with your case file.
Report the error promptly, even when it looks harmless. A wrong middle initial that never mattered becomes a problem at a name-check, at an employment verification, at a border, or at naturalization — and the fix is easiest while the file is fresh and the mailing is recent.
A permanent resident card with wrong data is replaced with Form I-90, and the fee turns on the cause. Where USCIS caused the error, the application is filed without a fee and the incorrect card is returned. Where the information you supplied was wrong, the same form carries the ordinary fee, and current amounts are in the USCIS fee schedule.
Evidence is what separates the two. To show the error was not yours, supply the filing that contained the correct spelling, the receipt or approval notice showing it, and the identity document — passport or birth certificate — that the correct version matches. A request asserting a USCIS error without those attachments is usually processed as an ordinary paid replacement.
Be precise about what is actually wrong. A name that differs from your passport because you legally changed it is not an error and is handled differently from a misspelling. A date of birth that differs because the source document itself was wrong is a correction to the source, not to the card, and the card follows afterwards.
An employment authorization document with wrong data is not corrected with Form I-90, which covers permanent resident cards only. Where USCIS made the error, ask for a corrected card without a new fee, following the current instructions for reporting a card error; where the error came from your application, the route is a new Form I-765 with the fee that applies to your category.
Timing matters more here than anywhere else in this article, because an EAD carries a validity period and your employment depends on it. An error found the week the card arrives leaves room to correct it; the same error found two months before expiry collides with a renewal, and the two filings interact.
Tell your employer what is happening and document it. A card with a wrong date of birth can still be acceptable for employment verification in some circumstances and not in others, and the answer belongs to the employer's process rather than to USCIS. Keep the correspondence, because a gap in work authorization is far harder to reconstruct afterwards than to document as it happens.
A mistake on a Form I-797 notice — a misspelled name, a wrong date of birth, a wrong classification — is not fixed with a new application. Use the typographic error inquiry in the online case inquiry system, or raise it with the Contact Center; there is no form and no fee.
Do this even when the underlying case is approved and the notice feels like paperwork. The data on the notice flows into the next stage, and an error left uncorrected at the receipt stage tends to reappear on the card, at the consulate, or in the interview file. Our guide on how to contact USCIS sets out which inquiry type to choose.
Where an approved petition has to be sent somewhere else, or a duplicate approval notice is needed, that is a different request handled on Form I-824 rather than by an inquiry. It carries a fee and its own processing time, so it is worth confirming that a plain corrected notice will not do first.
A naturalization certificate or a certificate of citizenship with wrong data is replaced with Form N-565. Where USCIS caused the error, the application is filed without a fee and the certificate is surrendered; where the error came from the application or the change is a later legal name change, the fee applies.
Check the certificate at the ceremony, before you leave. Errors found on the day are sometimes resolved on the spot, and every other route is measured in months. This is the single most useful sentence in this article for anyone with a ceremony scheduled.
Do not use a certificate you know is wrong to obtain other documents. A passport issued from an erroneous certificate propagates the error into another agency's records, and unwinding two agencies is materially harder than unwinding one.
Replacing a card takes months, and during that time you still need to work, travel and prove what you are. For permanent residents, the answer is an ADIT stamp — a temporary evidence of lawful permanent residence placed in your passport at a field office, arranged through the Contact Center.
Ask for it explicitly and explain the need, because appointments are granted for defined purposes and this is one of them. Bring the receipt notice for the pending replacement, your passport and any identity documents you hold.
Plan travel around the gap rather than through it. Returning to the United States without a valid card is possible in defined circumstances and is not something to improvise at a counter, and the consequences of getting it wrong fall on the traveller. If your case also involves a long absence, the separate issue of abandonment is covered in our article on the reentry permit.
Most of them come from transliteration. A name written in Cyrillic can be rendered in Latin letters several defensible ways, and a family that has used two spellings across a passport, a marriage certificate and an old visa application will eventually receive a document carrying the version they did not expect.
Pick the spelling in your current passport and use it everywhere, including on documents where another version is technically also correct. Where prior filings used a different version, list it as a former name rather than hoping it goes unnoticed, and make sure certified translations render it consistently — our guide to certified translations for USCIS covers the standard.
Check every notice on the day it arrives. The receipt notice is the first place a wrong character appears, and correcting it there costs one inquiry; correcting it after it has reached the card, the certificate and the passport costs three filings and a year.
Generally no. Where USCIS caused the error, Form I-90 is filed without a fee and the incorrect card is returned. Include the filing and the notice showing the correct spelling, since a request without that evidence is usually treated as an ordinary paid replacement.
The correction is a replacement at your expense — Form I-90 for a green card, a new Form I-765 for a work permit, Form N-565 for a certificate. The current amounts are in the USCIS fee schedule.
No. Use the typographic error inquiry in the online case inquiry system or raise it with the Contact Center. There is no form and no fee, and correcting it early stops the error reaching your card.
That depends on your category and on what the card says, and it is a question for your employer's verification process as much as for USCIS. Report the error immediately, keep the correspondence, and do not let a correction collide with a renewal deadline.
Ask the Contact Center for a field office appointment for an ADIT stamp, which is temporary evidence of permanent residence placed in your passport. Bring the receipt notice for the pending replacement and your passport.
At the ceremony, before you leave the building. Errors caught that day are sometimes corrected immediately; afterwards the route is Form N-565, without a fee where USCIS caused the error, and it takes months.
$200 for 30 minutes, in English or Russian. Call (305) 315-3425 or email fitenkolaw@gmail.com to schedule.
This article is informational only and is not legal advice. Form editions, fees and processing times change; confirm current requirements with USCIS before filing. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Fitenko Law PLLC, 11555 Heron Bay Blvd, Suite 277, Coral Springs, FL 33076 (main office); 600 Three Islands Boulevard, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 (by appointment only). Phone: (305) 315-3425. Email: fitenkolaw@gmail.com