I spoke with our legal firm earlier and was told that one can apply for permanent residence 5 years after receiving the first residence card. I was really hoping that it was 5 years from application or something similar. I probably should have known this was the case, but I hadn’t been paying too much attention to anything other than ARI and citizenship concerns the past number of months. Again, it was a fool’s hope to think it would be anything other than what it is.