Immigration policy in the United States: a CBO paper

Original publisher: [Washington, D.C.] : Congress of the United States, Congressional Budget Office, [2006] OCLC Number: (OCoLC)70827436 Subject: United States -- Emigration and immigration -- Government policy. Excerpt: ... IMMIGRATION POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES 3 justments to LPR status were granted and about 362,000 aliens entered the country for the first time ( see Table 1 ). Box 1. The second path to lawful admission is temporary admis-Definition of Terms sion, which is granted to foreign citizens who seek entry Terminology used throughout this paper is de-to the United States for a limited time and for a specific fined by the Department of Homeland Security's purpose ( such as tourism, diplomacy, temporary work, or Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services: study ). Under U.S. law, aliens admitted on a temporary basis are classified as " nonimmigrants. " Only non-B Alien refers to any individual who is not a immigrants with a specific type of visa may be permitted citizen of the United States. to work in the United States. Nonimmigrants are not eli-gible for citizenship through naturalization; those wish-B Immigrant refers to an alien lawfully admit-ing to remain in the United States permanently must ap-ted to the United States for permanent resi-ply for permanent admission. In 2004, about 5 million dence; such people also may be referred to as people were granted visas for temporary admission. lawful permanent residents. Annual issuances of temporary visas, however, are not a B Nonimmigrant refers to an alien who seeks measure of the number of nonimmigrants entering the temporary entry to the United States for a spe-country each year. Most temporary visas are valid for sev-cific purpose. Nonimmigrants include tour-eral years after they are issued. Thus, issuance and entry ists, temporary workers, business executives, students, and diplomats. may occur in different years, and visa holders may enter the country multiple times. The USCIS does report...