A permanent resident alien is, as - if you have a kind of good familiarity with the english language - you might have figured out, a person who doesn't come from the country - originally. You can tell this by the word "alien" - which means foreign; roughly.

A person who is a permanent resident alien is a person who is legally permitted to stay in the country - although the person in question is a foreigner - and immigrant (which is another way to talk about a permanent resident alien). Of course, you can be an immigrant even though you are not a permanent resident alien - as the latter is an immigrant that has legal right to stay in the country; whereas an immigrant is simply a person who is situated in the country.

To go from being a permanent resident alien, to a "real" citizen, you have to get a so called "green card" - the card being green to "signal" that it makes something okay -- in this case permanently staying in the United States. What the card does is prove that the card holder is a Lawful Permanent Resident. This prson has been given, officially, the benefits that a immigrant gets -- for example that the person can both stay, and take employment, in the USA. However, there are requirements for the cardholder - which, if not lived up to, causes the cardholder to have to leave the country.

The Immigration and naturalization service were, originally, those handing out the cards - but, due to a re-organization, the bureau of citizenship and immigration services are now those that give them out.

A person applying for the green card can have two different permits while their case is being handled (however, not initially but after a certain stage has been passed in the process of deciding whether the person in question should be permitted the green card). The first of the two permits is the right to work - which comes in a document known as the employment authorization document. The other permit, also in the form of a document, gives the person the right to enter the United States more times (in case that would be needed).

Hopefully this little guide to what a permanent resident alien is - and how to go from being a permanent resident alien to become a "real" united states citizen - has, or will, somehow help you out.