Research Summary

Many levels of immigration status exist to categorize the different types of immigrants that are currently residing in the United States. This helps the U.S maintain a better understanding of those who are not U.S citizens or nationals, and therefore provide services depending on one’s immigration status. It is important to be able to distinguish the different immigration status in the country, because it helps the government differentiate who receives welfare or other government aid and who does not. As well as, it helps keep track of immigration and the number of non-U.S citizens. The following passages will be listing and describing the different immigration status starting at permanence then the different variations of immigrants.

The different levels include what is most commonly known as immigrants, which are also referred as Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR). Which are immigrants that were able to obtain U.S citizenship, and are allowed to work in the United States without any consequences (2,3). Immigrants are issued a green card for identification purposes (2,3,6). Then there are nonimmigrants, which are granted a F-1 visa, which means they are allowed to be in the United States for a temporary time, 90 days or longer (2,3). This usually refers to tourists, or granted to international students. Therefore, the F-1 visa also corresponds to the F-1 student visa (2,3,6). Nonimmigrants are sometimes allowed to work in the United States, but for a limited amount of time, until the visa expires (3,6).

Refugees or asylum seekers are another category of immigration status (1,2). They are often overlooked as the typical immigrant, however they also hold a similar legal status process. Refugees are individuals who are escaping political upheaval in their home countries, and so are granted permanent residency into the United States, alongside temporary residential placement (1,2,6). This is similar to Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which grants those from designated countries, Homeland Security feels do not provide adequate protection of its nationals, temporary status in the United States (1,6,7).