Security concerns have been raised after thousands of green cards have 'simply gone missing', according to a damning report by the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General.

At least 19,000 green cards were mishandled in the past three years, the report says. The cards either included the wrong information such as names, dates of birth, photos and gender or were issued in duplicate.

'Improperly issued green cards pose significant risks and burdens for the agency,' Inspector General John Roth's report said.

Over the last three years, US Citizenship and Immigration Services received over 200,000 reports from approved applicants about missing cards.

A new report by the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has found thousands of green cards (file photo) have gone missing after being posted out in error

This table shows the results of analysed data from 2013-2016. Approximately 13,000 cards were printed and issued with incorrect personal information and over 6,200 duplicate cards were sent out to individuals who should have each received only one card

'Errors can result in approved applicants being unable to obtain benefits, maintain employment, or prove lawful immigration status,' the report warned.

'In the wrong hands, green cards may enable terrorists, criminals, and illegal aliens to remain in the United States and access immigrant benefits,’ it continued.

The DHS report, released on November 16, blamed most of the errors on electronic system problems but noted that when the errors were realized they were not dealt with quickly enough.

Inspector General John Roth released the damning report into USCIS' handling of green cards

'Although USCIS conducted a number of efforts to recover the inappropriately issued cards, these efforts also were not fully successful and lacked consistency and a sense of urgency,' the DHS said.

The USCIS agency spent almost $1.5million in 2015 alone trying to address the mistakes with customers' cards.

The green card displays the permanent resident’s full legal name, photo, alien number, fingerprint, date of birth, and country of birth, as well as a number and expiration date.

The card remains valid for either two or 10 years, depending on whether the individual is granted conditional or permanent residence.

The DHS report found that some customers were given a card with a 10-year expiration when they should have received one that was valid for two years.

The report also found that the number of cards sent to wrong addresses has incrementally increased since 2013.

The data analysed showed that approximately 13,000 cards were printed and issued with incorrect personal information between 2013-2016.

The Department of Homeland Security has recommended that USCIS improves the Electronic Immigration System that handles the green cards

In the same period, over 6,200 duplicate cards were sent out to individuals who should have each received only one card.

One of the most disastrous mistakes occurred in June 2015, when more than 5,400 individuals received duplicate cards after a card production software update inadvertently generated duplicates for a backlog of cards that were queued up for printing.

Roughly two million green cards are produced and mailed each year.

In response to the draft report, Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Leon Rodriguez, wrote: 'The number of cards issued with errors is a very small percentage - .00048 per cent in Fiscal Year 2015 - of the total number of green cards issued by the agency each year.'

Mr Rodriguez called for 'greater context' in same areas of the report and also highlighted that potential national security risks from unrecovered cards would be unlikely because 'a card would not only need to to fall into the hands of someone who has such malicious intent, but who also has a physical resemblance to the individual for who the card was intended'.

The DHS recommended the USCIS improves the Electronic Immigration System that handles the cards.