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 2023,there are an estimated 12.7 million green card holders,of whom 9 million are eligible to become United States citizens. Approximately 18,700 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. It is the largest visa category in the United States in terms of guest worker numbers. 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 initial and continuing 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. He also served from May 2006 to January 2007 as the 31st governor of Idaho.
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 and one equivalent as the coordinator/ambassador at large for counterterrorism. 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).
TN status is a special non-immigrant classification of foreign nationals in the United States,which offers expedited work authorization to a citizen of Canada or a national of Mexico. It was created as a result of provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement that mandated simplified entry and employment permission for certain professionals from each of the three NAFTA member states in the other member states. The provisions of NAFTA relevant to TN status were then carried over almost verbatim to the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement that replaced NAFTA in 2020.
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 are citizens of one of the visa-exempt or Visa Waiver Program countries.
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 a 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.
EB-2 is an immigrant visa preference category for United States employment-based permanent residency,created by the Immigration Act of 1990. The category includes "members of the professions holding advanced degrees or their equivalent",and "individuals who because of their exceptional ability in the sciences,arts,or business will substantially benefit prospectively the national economy,cultural or educational interests,or welfare of the United States,and whose services in the sciences,arts,professions,or business are sought by an employer in the United States". Applicants must generally have an approved Permanent Labor Certification,a job offer,and their employer must have filed an Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker with the USCIS.
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 former 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 (CFA),the agreement governing the relationship between the United States and the Freely Associated States (FAS) of the Federated States of Micronesia,the Republic of the Marshall Islands,and Palau.
Form I-130,Petition for Alien Relative is a form submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services by a United States citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident petitioning for an immediate or close relative intending to immigrate to the United States. It is one of numerous USCIS immigration forms. As with all USCIS petitions,the person who submits the petition is called the petitioner and the relative on whose behalf the petition is made is called the beneficiary. The USCIS officer who evaluates the petition is called the adjudicator.
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.
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.
