It isn't green (more of a pink), but it's important.

The green card is a common term for having permanent resident status in the US, one step below becoming a citizen. Getting a green card requires dealing with the INS. The paperwork is extensive, and there are lots of restrictions on what one can do while waiting to get one. For example, switching jobs can require the process to be restarted, and the waiting times are often excessive. But if you want to stay in the country, there's not much choice.

A 1990 romatic comedy starring Gérard Depardieu and Andie McDowell as a couple of strangers who arrange a marriage of convenience. George Faure is a frenchman in America, and needs a green card, and Bronte Parrish needs to be married to obtain the dream flat she has just found. They then move in together to convince the INS that they have married for love. Rather predictably of course, they fall in love, and hijinks ensue.

Gérard is as good as always in this film, and it probably contributed to his growth in popularity outside Europe in the early 90s. Andie is quite tolerable, which is good for her, as she is an abysmal actress IMHO. A couple of other notable cast names are Bebe Neuwirth, famous for playing the wife/ex-wife of Dr Frasier Crane in Cheers and Frasier, and Ethan Phillips, Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager.

Tagline: The story of two people who got married, met, and then fell in love.
5.9/10 on IMDb
Written and Directed by Peter Weir.

Some info taken from http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0099699

green bytes = G = green lightning

green card n.

[after the "IBM System/360 Reference Data" card] A summary of an assembly language, even if the color is not green and not a card. Less frequently used now because of the decrease in the use of assembly language. "I'll go get my green card so I can check the addressing mode for that instruction."

The original green card became a yellow card when the System/370 was introduced, and later a yellow booklet. An anecdote from IBM refers to a scene that took place in a programmers' terminal room at Yorktown in 1978. A luser overheard one of the programmers ask another "Do you have a green card?" The other grunted and passed the first a thick yellow booklet. At this point the luser turned a delicate shade of olive and rapidly left the room, never to return.

In fall 2000 it was reported from Electronic Data Systems that the green card for 370 machines has been a blue-green booklet since 1989.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.