WASHINGTON (AP):

Legal residents whose green cards lack expiration dates may have to pay US$370 to replace them, the Homeland Security Department said yesterday.

Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the department, has proposed requiring legal residents with those cards to pay a US$290 replacement application fee plus $80 for electronic fingerprints and a photo, or biometrics.

The agency estimates about 750,000 legal permanent U.S. residents were issued green cards between 1977 and 1989 without expiration dates.

Green cards are proof the people to whom they were issued are authorised to live and work in the United States. Legal residents must always carry the cards.

120 DAYS

Under the proposal, legal residents would have 120 days to replace their cards.

If they should fail to apply for replacements, their green cards eventually would be terminated on a date to be determined later. Legal residents with cards that need to be replaced will not be individually notified. The proposal is not final, but legal residents can begin applying now for replacement cards if they choose.

"We want to bring folks back in so we can redo the biometrics, so we can ensure the right person has the right card," said Bill Wright, Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman. "It's a security issue. It's making sure the right person has right card."

Citizenship and Immigration Services said, in the Federal Register, that it had considered expiring all pre-1989 cards and lowering the fee for replacing the cards.

However it ultimately decided against that because the agency would have to charge other immigrants to cover the costs.

In a news release, the agency said updating the cards would also allow it to update cardholder information, conduct backgroundchecks and store fingerprint and photo information.

On the Net: USCIS green card replacement FAQ: http://www. uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/I551ReplacementQA082207.pdf