A green card,known officially as a permanent resident card,is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. Green card holders are formally known as lawful permanent residents (LPRs). As of 2019,there are an estimated 13.9 million green card holders,of whom 9.1 million are eligible to become United States citizens. Approximately 65,000 of them serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act,section 101(a)(15)(H),that allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. A specialty occupation requires the application of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or the equivalent of work experience. The duration of stay is three years,extendable to six years,after which the visa holder can reapply. Laws limit the number of H-1B visas that are issued each year. There exist congressionally mandated caps limiting the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each fiscal year,which is 65,000 visas,and an additional 20,000 set aside for those graduating with master’s degrees or higher from a U.S. college or university. An employer must sponsor individuals for the visa. USCIS estimates there are 583,420 foreign nationals on H-1B visas as of September 30,2019. The number of issued H-1B visas have quadrupled since the first year these visas were issued in 1991. There were 206,002 new and initial H-1B visas issued in 2022.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) is a bureau of the United States Department of State reporting to the under secretary of state for management. The mission of the Bureau is to administer laws,formulate regulations and implement policies relating to the broad range of consular services and immigration. As of 2021,the bureau is headed by the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs,Rena Bitter.
James Elroy Risch is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Idaho since 2009. A member of the Republican Party,he served as lieutenant governor of Idaho under governors Dirk Kempthorne and Butch Otter and as the 31st governor of Idaho from 2006 to 2007.
Assistant Secretary of State (A/S) is a title used for many executive positions in the United States Department of State,ranking below the under secretaries. A set of six assistant secretaries reporting to the under secretary for political affairs manage diplomatic missions within their designated geographic regions,plus one assistant secretary dealing with international organizations. Assistant secretaries usually manage individual bureaus of the Department of State. When the manager of a bureau or another agency holds a title other than assistant secretary,such as "director," it can be said to be of "assistant secretary equivalent rank." Assistant secretaries typically have a set of deputies,referred to as deputy assistant secretaries (DAS).
A K-1 visa is a visa issued to the fiancéor fiancée of a United States citizen to enter the United States. A K-1 visa requires a foreigner to marry his or her U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry,or depart the United States. Once the couple marries,the foreign citizen can adjust status to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States. Although a K-1 visa is legally classified as a non-immigrant visa,it usually leads to important immigration benefits and is therefore often processed by the Immigrant Visa section of United States embassies and consulates worldwide.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS),which was dissolved by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and replaced by three components within the DHS:USCIS,Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Visitors to the United States must obtain a visa from one of the U.S. diplomatic missions unless they come from one of the visa-exempt or Visa Waiver Program countries. The same rules apply for travel to all U.S. states,Washington,D.C.,Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,as well as to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands with additional waivers,while similar but separate rules apply to American Samoa.
Thomas Alfred Shannon Jr. is an American diplomat who served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2016 to 2018. In early 2017,Shannon served as acting United States Secretary of State until President Donald Trump's nominee,Rex Tillerson,was confirmed. He was also acting Deputy Secretary of State of the United States until the Senate confirmed President Trump's nominee,John J. Sullivan.
Kenneth Thomas Cuccinelli II is an American lawyer and politician who served as the senior official performing the duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party,he also served as the Principal Deputy and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and was Attorney General of Virginia from 2010 to 2014.
Philip Seth Goldberg is an American diplomat and government official who has served as United States ambassador to South Korea since 2022. He served previously as ambassador to the Philippines,Bolivia and Colombia and chief of the U.S. mission in UN-administered Kosovo during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. He has served in Washington as assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research. In 2022,he was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea and was confirmed on May 5,2022 by the United States Senate through voice vote.
Under the public charge rule,immigrants to United States classified as Likely or Liable to become a Public Charge may be denied visas or permission to enter the country due to their disabilities or lack of economic resources. The term was introduced in the Immigration Act of 1882. The restriction has remained a major cause for denial of visas and lawful permanent residency ever since;in 1992,about half of those denied immigrant and non-immigrant visas for substantive reasons were denied due to the public charge rule. However,the administrative definition of "public charge" has been subject to major changes,notably in 1999 and 2019.
Maureen Elizabeth Cormack is an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2015 to 2019. She served as acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from August to September 2021.
Joseph Yuosang Yun is the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Compact Negotiations,appointed in March 2022 by President Joe Biden to negotiate amendments to the Compact of Free Association (COFA),the agreement governing the relationship between the United States and the Freely Associated States (FAS) of the Federated States of Micronesia,the Marshall Islands,and Palau.
The R-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa which allows travel to the United States for service as a minister or other religious occupation. Between October 2019 and September 2020,there were 2,399 R visas issued.
Lee Francis Cissna is an American lawyer and government official who served as Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2017 to 2019. Prior to assuming that role,he was the Director of Immigration Policy in the Office of Policy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Beginning in 2019,multiple appointments of acting officials in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were questioned,on the basis of whether the appointments were legal under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. After the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April 2019,the Trump administration did not formally nominate a new secretary to be confirmed by the Senate,relying on acting postings.
Julie Jiyoon Chung,birth name as Chung Ji-yoon,is a Korean-American diplomat who has served as the United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka since 2022. She previously served as Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the United States Department of State's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA). Her first overseas assignment was in Guangzhou,China. Chung has later served in several posts in Japan,Vietnam,Thailand,Cambodia,Colombia and Iraq.
Ur Mendoza Jaddou is an American attorney who is the current director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security.
The Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a civilian official in the United States Department of Homeland Security. During July 2010 the position's title was changed from Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
