Green Card

Identification: Film, written by Peter Weir, about a French immigrant to the United States who enters into a marriage of convenience Date: Released in 1990

Significance: Green Card tells the story of an American woman and a French immigrant living in New York City who enter into a marriage of convenience for different reasons. Complications develop when Immigration and Naturalization Service agents seek evidence that their marriage has been undertaken solely to enable the immigrant husband to obtain his green card.

Green Card opens by introducing a young American woman named Bronte (Andie MacDowell) who cannot obtain a lease on an upscale New York apartment unless she is married. At the same time, a French waiter named Georges (Gerard Depardieu) who needs a green card to work in the United States and become a citizen seeks an American wife so he can get that card. After a mutual friend brings Georges and Bronte together, the couple get married and then say goodbye to each other immediately after the ceremony.

The amicably estranged couple’s troubles begin when two Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) inspectors randomly, it is presumed, investigate them to determine whether they have satisfied the immigration laws concerning the green card and their lawful permanent residence. Audiences unaware of federal immigration regulations might see these government agents as intruders. However, the film makes it clear that the INS is obligated to investigate green card petitioners to deter fraudulent behavior.

As nearly a year passes by, both characters go through changes in their lives as they come together to learn more about each other’s habits and behaviors so they can make the INS inspectors think they have entered their marriage in good faith. Each of them must provide, as the law states, general and specific supporting evidence that Georges’s obtaining of his green card has not been fraudulent, and they must have a common residence. The rest of the film shows them trying to learn about each other. As they grow closer, they behave more deceitfully toward their friends and relatives. Georges knows, and the audience learns, that his ability to obtain permanent resident status can be lost if they are found out—and the law allows for his immediate removal from the United States and the possibility of his being permanently banned. Eventually, the government deports Georges. However, love wins out as the film ends, as Bronte prepares to go to France to join her husband, who is waiting for her.

JamesF. O’Neil

Further Reading

Bray, Ilona M. Fiance and Marriage Visas: A Couple’s Guide to U. S. Immigration. 5th ed. Berkeley, Calif.: Nolo, 2008.

Gania, Edwin T. U. S. Immigration Step by Step. 3d ed.

Naperville, Ill.: Sphinx; Sourcebooks, 2006. Motomura, Hiroshi. Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Wernick, Allan. U. S. Immigration and Citizenship: Your Complete Guide. 4th ed. Cincinnati: Emmis Books, 2004.

See also: Citizenship and Immigration Services, U. S.; Deportation; Films; French immigrants; Green cards; Immigration law; Intermarriage; Marriage; “Marriages of convenience”; Resident aliens; Yugoslav state immigrants.