If you are wondering what a green card is and what criteria are used to determine who gets one, then you are wondering about the United States’ policies on authorized immigration. An authorized immigrant is a noncitizen born in another country who has received formal permission to live and work in the United States. Green cards are the most visible indicator of the complex rules and processes that determine who can immigrate to the US and who cannot.
Often, the term ‘immigration’ is used to describe both legal (authorized) immigration and illegal (unauthorized) immigration. This brief focuses on authorized immigration, or immigration to the US that is allowed by the US government. (For information on unauthorized immigration and other aspects of immigration policy, see the For Further Reading section at the end of this brief.)
How Many Immigrants Are In The United States?
US immigration laws have evolved throughout American history. They are the result of compromises fought by many groups with different interests and beliefs about the desirability of immigration (how many, from where, and under what conditions).
As of January 2022, approximately 12.9 million immigrants are authorized to live in the United States (3.9% of the United States population) as legal permanent residents. About 14% of the United States population today are foreign-born including naturalized citizens, permanent residents, and unauthorized immigrants. As the figures below show, the number of individuals admitted each year varies widely, although both in raw numbers and adjusted for the size of the population, immigration to the US has steadily increased over time.
Immigration to the United States has taken place since its colonial days, but the countries of origin of immigrants have changed over time. For many years, immigration was governed by national quotas. However, legislation enacted in the 1960s eliminated national origin quotas and moved to the system described below. While a substantial portion of immigrants come from Mexico, South/Central America, China, and India, nearly half of the total are from the rest of the world.
What Criteria Are Used To Determine Who Can Immigrate To The US?
The criteria for permanent residency by the US government fall into four broad categories: family reunification, employment, diversity, and asylum or refuge. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows 675,000 permanent immigrant visas each year across these categories. Additionally, there is no cap on U.S. citizens’ spouses, children, and parents who are under the age of 21. For refugees, the president sets a limit in consultation with Congress.
The Diversity Immigration Visa Program allows for immigration permits through a lottery system for people from countries with low levels of immigration (fewer than 50,000 over the previous 5 years) to the United States. Examples include Cameroon, Nepal, and Albania, among many others. 55,000 visas are allocated each year through the lottery system. To be eligible applicants have to meet certain qualifications, such as having a high school level education or two years of working or training experience. The chances of being selected depend on where the applicant is from, but the chances generally are very low.
Family reunification is the path that most permanent visas are issued. Specifically, most are immediate relatives. The maximum number of family reunification visas is 480,000, but this is often surpassed due to the unlimited number of immediate relatives under the age of 21. The permanent employment-based immigration limit is 140,000 a year, including spouses and children. If there are unused spots from the previous year, they are added to the cap for the following year.
Temporary vs. Permanent Legal Status
Legal entry into the United States can be either temporary or permanent. Temporary legal status is often called “nonimmigrant admission” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Temporary visas typically include high- and low-skill employment, educational opportunities, or tourism that typically last between less than a year and six years. In 2019, 186 million temporary visas were granted. Of the 186 million, around 4.1 million were temporary workers and their families. These temporary work visas are designed to fill labor market shortages in both high-skilled and physical labor markets. The length of a temporary visa depends on the purpose of the visa. Visas for temporary travel are usually for a maximum of 1 year. Students usually have the length of their term of study plus 60 days. Temporary work visas for high-skill workers are capped at 3 years while low-skill workers do not usually extend beyond 1 year.
How Does US Authorized Immigration Policy Compare To Other Nations?
Immigration policies vary widely across countries. Some do not regulate immigration heavily; people can travel and reside in the country relatively freely. Other countries have strict bans on immigration. In 2019, the United States hosted the largest portion of the world’s immigrants, around 19%. Germany hosted just under 5%, and the United Kingdom hosted around 4%. All other G7 countries hosted under 4%.
Researchers have found that many countries around the world are becoming more selective in who they grant legal resident status to, rather than restricting immigration to the country in general. One way to measure how many people are leaving a country (emigrating) compared to coming to that country (immigrating) is by subtracting total emigration from total immigration. This is called net migration. The United States has the highest positive net migration among all countries, meaning more individuals immigrate to the US than individuals emigrate away from the US each year.
Globally, many countries have passed policies to attract high-skilled workers. A 2017 study of 196 governments’ immigration policies finds that 85% of governments have established policies to either raise or maintain current levels of highly-skilled immigrants to their country. This is not the case for the US whose system is more heavily oriented toward family reunification—the result of political compromises in the 1965 law.
For Further Reading
Tichenor, D. (2002). Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America. Princeton University Press. https://tinyurl.com/4pp5xkd5
Strait-Eppsteiner, H. (2021) Primer on US Immigration Policy. Congressional Research Service, available at https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45020, accessed 7/28/23.
Policy vs. Politics Policy Brief: Unauthorized Immigration (URL TBD)
Policy vs. Politics Policy Brief: Refugees and Asylum (URL TBD)
Sources
How Many Immigrants Are In The United States?
United States Office of Immigration Statistics. (2021). Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2021, Refugees and Asylees 2021 Data Tables. https://tinyurl.com/bdftyuhv, accessed 7/27/23
Department of Homeland Security (2021). Lawful Permanent Residents. https://tinyurl.com/4x8b2aw9, accessed 7/27/23
What Countries Do Immigrants Come From?
United States. Department of Homeland Security. 2019 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, 2020. https://tinyurl.com/5avrfsds, accessed 7/27/23
Tucker, R. W. (2019). Immigration and US foreign policy. Routledge.
Abramitzky, R., Boustan, L., Jácome, E., & Pérez, S. (2021). Intergenerational mobility of immigrants in the United States over two centuries. American Economic Review, 111(2), 580-608.
What Criteria Are Used To Determine Who Can Immigrate To The US?
Tichenor, D. (2002). Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America. Princeton University Press. https://tinyurl.com/4pp5xkd5, accessed 7/27/23
Strait-Eppsteiner, H. (2021) Primer on US Immigration Policy. Congressional Research Service, available at https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45020, accessed 7/28/23.
United States State Department. (2017). Table VII Immigrant Number Use for Visa Issuances and Adjustments of Status in the Diversity Immigrant Category Fiscal Years 2008-2017. https://tinyurl.com/bddk99hx, accessed 7/27/23
Temporary vs. Permanent Legal Status
Grimm, A. (2019). Studying to stay: Understanding graduate visa policy content and context in the United States and Australia. International Migration, 57(5), 235-251.
González, M. F. (2022). Precarity for the global talent: The impact of visa policies on high‐skilled immigrants’ work in the United States. International Migration, 60(2), 193-207.
González, M. F. (2020). High skilled immigrants’ pathways from risky to secure legality in the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(15), 2807-2825.
How Does US Authorized Immigration Policy Compare To Other Nations?
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2017). International Migration Policies: Data Book. https://tinyurl.com/yrnkzxwc, accessed 6/23/23.
Boucher, A. K. (2020). How ‘skill’definition affects the diversity of skilled immigration policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(12), 2533-2550.
Helbling, M., & Leblang, D. (2019). Controlling immigration? How regulations affect migration flows. European Journal of Political Research, 58(1), 248-269.
This policy brief was researched by Policy vs. Politic interns Mary Stafford and Zul Norin, drafted by Griffin Reid, and edited by Dr. Nicholas Clark and Dr. William Bianco, with the assistance of subject matter expert Dr. Alexandra Filindra.