John Quiroba has been living in the United States for the last two years with a fake green card. He worked, got paid and lived with a card he bought in a supermarket parking lot for $50.

THE FAKE ONE Quiroba's green card looks like the older ones, with almost all the data information at the back.	THE REAL ONE The new green cards have all the information in the front. On the back there are holograms that are make the falsification more difficult.
<--- MOUSE OVER THE CARDS TO SEE THE BACK SIDE -->

uiroba, who requested to hide his real name, came to the United States from Chile with a tourist visa. Even though this only allowed him to stay on a temporary basis, he wanted to work. He officially became one of the 540,000 illegal immigrants who live in New York according to the INS. The INS’ studies also show that 41 percent of the 5 million illegal immigrants who are in the U.S. entered legally on a temporary basis and failed to depart. That was Quiroba’s case.

"Some Mexicans I knew told me that all of them had fake green cards," he said. "So, I decided to try." He went to a supermarket parking lot, where he found the man he had been told to see. After introducing himself, the man looked at him and said "OK, bring me two photographs and $100. I’ll wait for you here."

Quiroba came back a couple of hours later with the two pictures and the money. He gave the pictures to the man, and they agreed to meet at midnight at the same spot.

At midnight, he received his green card. He took a look at it. "Resident Alien. U.S. Department of Justice-Immigration and Naturalization Service. Name: Quiroza, John." His last name was misspelled, but he thought that it wouldn’t be important. After all, it was a fake card.

or more than one year, Quiroba lived with his fake green card. He never had any problem neither with the INS nor with his employers. The only one who detected the fraud was a doorman when he used it to get into a club. "The guy at the door looked at it and told me ‘Don’t give me this sh--. This is fake!’" he says. He also says it was no big deal, "but you are always scared when you’re illegal."

His situation has changed. Five months ago, he married his American girlfriend, and he now has his Social Security card and he is only waiting for his green card. The real one. In a few weeks, the fake one will be just a souvenir. "I’ll show it to my grandsons," he says while he smiles.