Here is the hiccup though: I am a permie and my address is a US one, but I cannot get a card unless I file to say that I have lost mine and need to pay for a replacement.

In other words, if you're native and get GE then you get the plastic no problemo, but if you're from foreign shores, get GE and then become permie/citizen then you have to fork out under the pretense of having lost something you never had in the first place.