Applicants for Immigrant Visas
General Categories of Immigrants
Persons immigrating to the United States
are divided by U.S. immigration law into two general categories:
(I) those who may obtain legal permanent residence status
without numerical limitation, and (II) those two are restricted
by an annual limitation on the number of persons who may enter
as permanent residents. The latter category is further divided
into (A) family sponsored immigrants, (B) employment based
immigrants, and (C) diversity immigrants.
1. Immigrants not Numerically
LimitedA. Immediate Relatives of United States Citizens:
The spouse and minor unmarried children of a United States
citizen, and the parents of a United States citizen who is over
the age of twenty-one. B. Returning Residents; Immigrants who
lived in the United States previously as lawful permanent
residents and are returning to live in the United States after a
temporary visit of more than one year abroad. II. IMMIGRANTS
SUBJECT TO NUMERICAL LIMITATIONS Subject to certain transitional
laws, immigration into the Untied States beginning in 1995 will
be limited to 675,000 persons per year, not including persons in
category I above. That figure is divided into three distinct
sub-categories. A. FAMILY-SPONSORED IMMIGRANTS: There is no
upper limit on the number of visas which may be issues to
Immediate Relates listed in Part I above. To the extent that
Immediate Relatives use less than 480,000 visas per year,
(465,000 until 1995), preference relatives may receive all of
the visas not used by Immediate Relatives, but in no case less
than 226,000 visas per year. Family-based preference categories
subject to the numerical limitation area follow, with minimum
preference limits in parentheses. 1. First Preference [more data
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