Recently, it has gotten easier to immigrate to the United States. In the United States, immigration law is difficult, and there is a lot of misunderstanding about how it works. The immigration rules of the United States are based on the following principles: family reunification, admitting immigrants with valuable skills to the US economy, protecting refugees, and promoting diversity. This list of the top 8 quickest and cheapest options illustrates how the US immigration system works.
The Immigration and Nationality Act is the corpus of legislation that regulates immigration policy today. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows the United States to issue up to 675,000 permanent immigrant visas in various categories each year.
After getting an immigrant visa and landing in the United States, a person becomes an LPR. Tourists, overseas students, and temporary workers are all given “non-immigrant” visas that allow them to stay in the US for years. While many employment-based visas have annual limits, non-immigrant visas (such as tourist and student visas) do not. They can be granted to anybody who fits the conditions.
Immigrate to the United States on the basis of a job
Immigrants with significant talents who wish to immigrate to the United States permanently or temporarily have a number of choices.
Immigrate to the United States based on family
The concept of family reunification guides immigration policy. Under the family-based immigration category, U.S. citizens and LPRs can bring specific family members to the United States. Immigrants with U.S. ties are recognized as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or under the family preference system.
Applicants for immediate relatives must meet certain age and financial standards, while petitioners must also meet certain age and financial conditions. The following are immediate relatives:
1. Spouses of citizens of the United States
2. Minor children (under 21 years old) of US citizens who are not married; and
3. Parents of citizens of the United States (petitioner must be at least 21-years-old to petition for a parent).
Each year, a limited number of visas are available under the family preference system, but applicants must fulfill regular qualifying standards, and petitioners must meet special age and financial requirements.
In order to balance the overall number of immigrants coming based on family ties, Congress devised a complicated process for deciding the authorized number of family preference visas for each year. After that, any unused employment preference immigrant numbers from the previous year are multiplied by the number of visas available for allocation under the preferred method.
A U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR) sponsor must petition for an individual relative, establish the legitimacy of the relationship, meet minimal revenue requirements, and sign a testimony of assistance stating that the enroller will be monetarily in charge of the family members upon arrival in the United States or authorize an affidavit of assistance specifying that the enroller will be monetarily in charge of the member of the family(s) upon arrival in the United States in order to be confessed with the family-based immigration system.
Individual relatives must also meet certain eligibility criteria, such as completing a medical examination and receiving mandatory immunizations, submitting an analysis of any immigration or criminal background, and demonstrating that they will not become totally dependant on the government for subsistence.
Wives and children of principal immigrants (those sponsored by a US citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR) under the family-preference category) accompany or follow the primary immigrant.
Immigrate to the United States: Temporary Visa Classifications
For non-immigrant employees working on a temporary basis, there are roughly 20 different types of visas available. However, depending on the permanent immigration category desired and the foreign person’s current nonimmigrant status, the foreign national may be able to complete the LPR procedure while still living and working in the United States.
Immigrate to the US: Country-by-Country Restrictions
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) limits the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States from a particular country, in addition to the numerical restrictions imposed on various immigration preferences. Currently, no single group of permanent immigrants (including family and employment-based immigrants) from a single country can account for more than 7% of total immigrants to the United States in a fiscal year. This is not a quota to ensure that specific nationalities make up 7% of all immigrants, but rather a cap to prevent any immigrant group from monopolizing immigration trends to the United States.
Immigrate to the United States: Permanent Immigration to the United States
Each year, the total number of permanent employment-based immigrants is limited to 140,000. This figure includes immigrants, eligible spouses, and minor unmarried children, meaning that the true number of employment-based immigrants is less than 140,000 every year. The consulate is the final stage in a foreign national’s application for an immigrant visa in the United States. The application for an immigrant visa cannot be submitted until the USCIS has approved the immigrant petition for consular processing. Whether a visa number is considered instantly available determines how long it takes to file an adjustment of status application.
The Visa Diversity Program (VDP)
The Diversity Visa lottery was established by the Immigration Act of 1990 as a particular pathway for immigrants from countries with low immigration rates to the United States. Every year, 55,000 visas are randomly given to citizens of countries who have sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the preceding five years. The Diversity Visa program has become one of the few avenues for people from specific parts of the world to receive a green card, despite being meant to boost Irish immigration (at least 40% of visas were entirely issued to Irish immigrants during the first three years of the program).
An applicant for a diversity visa must have graduated high school (or its equivalent) or worked for at least two years in a profession that requires at least two years of training or experience in the prior five years. The visas are distributed among six geographic zones, with more visas going to places with lower immigration rates and none going to inhabitants of countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years.
Citizenship in the United States
To qualify for U.S. citizenship by naturalization, an individual must hold lawful permanent resident (LPR) status (a green card) for at least five years. Personnel of the United States military serving in a time of war or declared hostilities, for example, are exempt. Applicants for US citizenship must be at least 18 years old, have lived in the country continuously, have “good moral character,” pass English and US history and civics exams (with some exceptions), and pay an application fee, among other requirements.
Other Types of Humanitarian Aid
TPS does not usually result in LPR status or any other sort of immigration status. Legal permanent resident (LPR) status or any other sort of immigration status does not automatically follow Deferred Enforced Departure (DED).
Certain individuals may be allowed to enter the United States on parole even if they do not meet the criteria for refugee status and are not able to immigrate through other channels.