INS Relents, Extends Green Cards to 1996 : Immigration: Deadline is changed as hundreds of last-minute applicants overwhelm officials.

Faced with a surge of new applicants and fears of increased discrimination in the workplace, U.S. authorities will extend for another year the validity of so-called green cards issued to hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants before 1979, federal officials announced Thursday.

The documents--slated to lapse Monday --will now remain valid until March 20, 1996, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner announced in Washington.

It was the third time since mid-1993 that an impending green card expiration deadline had been rescinded amid widespread confusion in the immigrant community and intense criticism of INS procedures.

This time, officials had vowed publicly as recently as Wednesday that there would be no more extensions. That changed as it became clear that waves of eleventh-hour applicants were overwhelming the INS’s ability to process them.

This week, lines to INS offices in Orange and Los Angeles counties have been forming overnight, with hundreds camping out until doors open in the morning.

At the Westminster office, which has opened about an hour earlier and closed later to ease the crush, spokeswoman Mary Kozlowski said employees “have been working really hard to accommodate as many people as possible in the last few days. But still, some people had to be turned away. (The extension) will really help.”

The extension announcement also was a relief for people like Dulcie Adams, a 71-year-old Australian and 54-year U.S. resident, who dreaded the prospect of waiting in line at the INS office in Los Angeles.

“It’s a madhouse down there,” said Adams, who was delighted to cancel her planned 4 a.m. trip to the INS today. Of the extension, Adams added, “I’m happy as a lark.”

Frustrated, many of those with green cards have simply applied for citizenship. Citizenship applications have increased dramatically since the green card replacement program began, officials report.

Despite the 12-month buffer, officials urged all who have not applied for new green cards to do so without delay. While those who fail to obtain new cards retain their legal status, their lack of current documentation leaves them vulnerable to denials of jobs, public benefits and re-entry into the United States.

“I encourage them to take the opportunity now to get their applications in,” said Richard K. Rogers, INS district director in Los Angeles.

Francisco Roman, director of the Fullerton branch of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, which helps people apply for green cards, said he had heard about the latest extension but didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t want people to procrastinate.

“I think the INS will keep extending the deadline for at least five years, because it’s a lot of work for them to process so many people’s applications,” he said. “I hope the deadline extension won’t convince people to wait until the last minute to apply for their new green cards and citizenship status. It’s crucial, especially during this anti-immigration climate in California, for people to become citizens so they can vote.”

In fact, officials say a bulging backlog of requests means that applicants will not actually receive their new green cards for six to eight months after submitting their paperwork.

For many, the chaotic process of replacing green cards was a potent example of INS inefficiency as well as the complexity of entrenched immigration procedures that are often difficult to change.

As many as 1 million legal immigrants nationwide--one third of them believed to be California residents and many of them elderly--have been required to replace existing green cards. More than 500,000 have already applied for new cards, officials say.

The INS made no effort to notify green-card holders by mail, contributing to widespread uncertainty. INS officials said postal notification would have been impossible, as many long-time green card holders have moved or died.

Making the process more difficult, critics said, was the INS’s failure to disseminate accurate and timely information, forcing thousands of confused applicants to wait on agency lines for hours, often in vain, trying to find out what they needed to do. Affected immigrants say it has been nearly impossible to get through by telephone.

Most applicants are required to travel to an INS office--a safeguard that officials say is needed to discourage fraudulent applications. Elderly and disabled people who are unable to travel to an INS office may request special assistance, but many say they are unaware of how to request such help. Applicants must pay a $75 for the new document, which is good for 10 years.

Behind the massive replacement effort--under way for almost three years--is officials’ desire to replace the counterfeit- prone older models with newer, counterfeit-resistant documents, actually pinkish, that contain bearers’ photographs, signatures and fingerprints. Counterfeit green cards are a staple of the thriving false-document trade, law enforcement authorities say.

Part of the reasoning for the extension, authorities said, was the fear that allowing the existing green cards to lapse could prompt greater discrimination in the workplace. Civil libertarians have voiced fears that longtime green-card holders could lose their jobs, while employers were worried that they could be subject to legal sanctions after Monday for hiring immigrants with expired cards.

The extension did not allay all those fears, however, as many say the confusion is likely to linger.

“I’m concerned that there’s been so much litigation and delay and confusion over this issue, that employers aren’t going to be keeping up to date with the latest changes,” said Charles Wheeler, directing attorney of the National Immigration Law Center, which filed a successful challenge to the INS’s original green-card replacement program.

A federal judge voided the initial program in May, 1993, because of procedural errors, including the INS’s failure to provide adequate public notice. The revised program set last Sept. 20 as the cutoff date for validity of pre-1979 green cards, but authorities added a six-month grace period after applicants swamped INS offices.

Times staff writer Thao Hua and correspondent Mimi Ko contributed to this story.