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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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Congressional Research Service (CRS)

 

Permanent Legal Immigration to the United States: Policy Overview

Ruth Ellen Wasem, Specialist in Immigration Policy

December 17, 2012

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R42866.pdf

[full-text, 15 pages]

 

Summary

The pool of people who are eligible to immigrate to the United States as legal permanent

residents (LPRs) each year typically exceeds the worldwide level set by the Immigration and

Nationality Act (INA). In an effort to process the demand for LPR visas fairly and in the national

interest, LPR admissions are subject to a complex set of numerical limits and preference

categories that give priority for admission on the basis of family relationships, needed skills, and

geographic diversity. The INA further specifies that each year, countries are held to a numerical

limit of 7% of the worldwide level of U.S. immigrant admissions, known as per-country limits or

country caps.

 

In FY2011, just over 1 million aliens became U.S. legal permanent residents (LPRs). Of this total,

nearly 65% entered the United States on the basis of family ties. Other major categories of LPRs

were employment-based (13%), refugees and asylees (16%), and diversity migrants (5%). In

FY2011, Mexico was the source country of 14% of LPRs who were admitted or who adjusted

status. Other top countries were China (8.2%), India (6.5%), Philippines (5.4%), and the

Dominican Republic (4.3%). Rather than newly arriving from abroad, 54.6% (580,092) were

adjusting to LPR status from a temporary (i.e., nonimmigrant) status within the United States.

 

There were 4.5 million approved LPR visa petitions pending with the National Visa Center at the

end of FY2011 because of the numerical limits in the INA, most of which are family-based

petitions. These data do not constitute a backlog of petitions to be processed; rather, these data

represent persons who have been approved for visas that are not yet available due to the

numerical limits in the INA. Adult children of U.S. citizens can now expect to wait about seven

years, with even longer waits for adult children of U.S. citizens from Mexico and the Philippines.

Prospective family-sponsored immigrants from the Philippines have the most substantial waiting

times before a visa is scheduled to become available to them; consular officers are now

considering the petitions of the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens from the Philippines who filed

almost 24 years ago.

 

Most agree that revision of the system of permanent legal immigration should be one of the major

components of a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) proposal, along with increased border

security and enforcement of immigration laws within the U.S. interior, reform of temporary

worker visas, and options to address the millions of unauthorized aliens residing in the country.

The 113th Congress may consider proposals to alter the legal immigration system—either in the

form of CIR or in the form of incremental revisions aimed at strategic changes.

 

Some are advocating for a significant reallocation of the visa categories or a substantial increase

in legal immigration to satisfy the desire of U.S. families to reunite with their relatives abroad and

to meet the labor force needs of employers hiring foreign workers. Yet, proponents of familybased

migration maintain that any proposal to increase immigration should also include the

option of additional family-based visas to reduce waiting times—currently up to years or

decades—for those already “in the queue.” Arguing against these competing priorities for

increased immigration are those who favor reduced immigration, including proposals to limit

family-based LPRs to the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, to confine employment-based

LPRs to highly skilled workers, and to eliminate the diversity visas.

 

Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1

Current Law and Policy ................................................................................................................... 2

Worldwide Immigration Levels ................................................................................................. 2

Per-country Ceilings .................................................................................................................. 3

Family and Employment-Based Preferences ............................................................................. 3

Other Permanent Immigration Categories ................................................................................. 5

Immigration Trends ......................................................................................................................... 6

Immigration Patterns, 1900-2010 .............................................................................................. 6

FY2011 Admissions .................................................................................................................. 8

Approved Visa Petitions Pending .................................................................................................... 9

Visa Processing Dates .............................................................................................................. 10

Family-Based Visa Priority Dates ..................................................................................... 11

Employment-Based Visa Priority Dates ............................................................................ 11

Concluding Observations ............................................................................................................... 12

 

Figures

Figure 1. Annual LPR Admissions and Status Adjustments, 1900-2010 ......................................... 6

Figure 2. Legal Permanent Residents, New Arrivals and Adjustments of Status, FY1994- FY2010 ............................. 7

Figure 3. Top Sending Countries (Comprising at Least Half of All LPRs): Selected Periods .................................. 8

Figure 4. Legal Permanent Residents by Major Category, FY2011 ................................................ 9

Figure 5. Approved LPR Visa Petitions Pending November 2011 ................................................ 10

 

Tables

Table 1. Legal Immigration Preference System ............................................................................... 4

Table 2. Other Major Legal Immigration Categories ....................................................................... 5

Table 3. Priority Dates for Family Preference Visas, as of December 2012 .................................. 11

Table 4. Priority Dates for Employment Preference Visas, as of December 2012 ........................ 12

 

Contacts

Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 12

 

 

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