Immigration law

Legal status of persons
Concepts
Citizenship Immigration Illegal immigration Nationality Naturalization Leave to Remain Statelessness
Designations
Administrative detainee Alien Citizen Dual-citizen Illegal immigrant Migrant worker Native-born citizen Naturalized citizen Political prisoner Refugee Stateless person
Social politics
Immigration law Illegal immigration Nationalism Nationality law Nativism (politics)

Immigration law refers to national government policies which control the phenomenon of immigration to their country.

Immigraton law, regarding foreign citizens, is related to nationality law, which governs the legal status of people, in matters such as citizenship. Immigration laws vary from country to country, as well as according to the political climate of the times, as sentiments may sway from the widely inclusive to the deeply exclusive of new immigrants.

Immigration law regarding the citizens of a country is regulated by international law. The United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights mandates that all countries allow entry to its own citizens.

Certain countries may maintain rather strict laws which regulate both the right of entry and internal rights, such as the duration of stay and the right to participate in government. Most countries have laws which designate a process for naturalization, by which immigrants may become citizens.

Immigration law in the United States

Main article: Immigration to the United States

The immigration laws in the United States have experienced uneven progress. During colonial times independent colonies created their immigration laws. The first attempt to naturalize foreigners was through the Naturalization Act of 1790. However many years later the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to stop the immigration of Chinese people. The Immigration Act of 1924 put a quota on how many immigrants are permitted, based on nationality. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 led to the creation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The five major departments of the federal government involved in the immigration process are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Of the five, the Department of Homeland Security, which replaced the Immigration and Naturalization Service, enforces immigration laws and bestows benefits on aliens. It is subdivided into three distinct departments: US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection.

Every year, the Federal government conducts a Diversity Visa Lottery. The lottery grants citizens of other countries legal entry into the United States. However only countries "with low rates of immigration to the United States" are allowed to apply.

Presently there are two different types of US visas: one for people seeking to live in the US; termed Immigrant Visas, and the other for people coming for limited durations, termed Non-Immigrant Visas. The former visa has "per country-caps", and the latter does not. Most non-immigrant visas are for work purposes, and usually require an offer of employment from a US business. Other categories include student, family and tourist visas.

The United States allows more than 1 million aliens to become Legal Permanent Residents every year, which is more than any other country in the world.

Immigration law became a serious political issue in the USA, particularly after 9/11.

Control measures

To control immigration, many countries set up customs at entry points. Some common location for entry points are airports and roads near the border. At the customs department, travel documents are inspected. Some required documents are a passport, an international certificate of vaccination and an onward ticket. Sometimes travelers are also required to declare or register the amount of money they are carrying.

Comparison of immigration visa categories by country

The most important decision for immigrant is to choose a country to move to. It is based on current and past immigration regulations of the considered country and a number of life conditions there. It is important to make sure that immigration legislation of chosen country will allow achieving a settlement and/or citizenship within certain period of time. This article is an attempt to classify and bring together the information about immigration legislation on a number of most popular countries.

Country	Employer Sponsored Work Visa	Independent Work Visa	Businessman, Self-employed or Entrepreneur	Investor	Ph.D. or Scientist	Spouse	Asylum Seeker	By birth while both of parents are foreign nationals	Studying as a migration route	Illegal Migrant	Citizenship	Special arrangements
USA	Through H1B lottery, many applicants failed to receive a settlement after 6 years and had to leave the country.	EB-1 Extraordinary Ability - for internationally recognized scientists, sportsman etc.		EB-5: you need to invest $500.000	Ph.D. allows to apply for EB2 visa which makes it possible to avoid H1B lottery and get a green card faster than those on H1B			Available			After 5 years of permanent residence known as Green Card	Green Card Lottery
United Kingdom British nationality law	Tier 2 - settlement (ILR) after 5 years. A limit on number of Tier 2 migrants per year introduced by new government which makes it very difficult to find an employer willing to sponsor the visa. Tier 2 Intra-company transfers do not lead to settlement (ILR).	(practically not available since April 2011) Tier 1 General - settlement (ILR) after 5 years. A limit on 1000 Tier 1 migrants per year introduced by new government. Besides that the migration legislation changes on average every six months which makes Britain not attractive for skilled migrants looking for a second nationality.	Tier 1 Entrepreneur	Tier 1 Investor	There is no specific category here but it is easier for universities (as opposed to businesses) to acquire a Tier 2 visa	ILR is provided after 2 years in marriage or partnership.	UK is a popular destination for asylum seekers. Due to high number of asylum seekers, the Asylum Tribunal seems to be very unlikely to recognize even very irresistible proofs for asylum grounds.	British citizenship can be obtained as a right for anybody who was born in Britain before 1994. After 1994, it can only be obtained by birth if at least one parent was settled there. It is also available as of right for people of whom one parent is a British citizen otherwise than by descent". All other classes of British Nationality do not confer right of abode in the UK to the holder.	Tier4 Full time students used to be are allowed to work up to 20 hours a week, which is now changed to 10 hours. After 10 years of continuous presence in the country on residential visas ILR is provided (this is probably not valid any more). For those who graduated in the UK there is [Tier 1 Post Study Work]	After 15 years of continuous illegal but proven presence in the country ILR is provided.	Citizenship is provided after 1 year of Permanent residency. Permanent residency in the UK is known as settlement or "Indefinite Leave to Remain" (ILR).	EU citizens (temporary except Bulgaria and Romania), as created by the Treaty of Rome at 17 have the right to work, provide services or self employment in the UK See also: Citizenship of the European Union Some commonwealth citizens have right of abode in the UK, which for most practical purposes gives them the same rights as British Citizens in the UK.
Canada	Official information	Available but Canada reduced the number of jobs in demands. E.g. software engineers are now unable to use this route.
Australia		Available
New Zealand		Available
South Africa
Guernsey
Jersey
Gibraltar
Isle of Man		Similar to British Tier1 General, but does not lead to EU nationality	Similar to British Tier1 Entrepreneur, but does not lead to EU nationality
Hong Kong	General Employment Policy (GEP)	General Points Test (GPT)
Israel		Not available										Law of Return
European Union	Varies by member state	Blue Card: will be available in 2012, except UK and Denmark
Austria		May be available in the future, called Rot-Weiß-Rot-Card
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus	It is considered to be very unlikely to get nationality through work route	Not available
Czech Republic		Not available
Denmark	Available: Danish Green Card
Estonia
Finland
France		Not available
Germany		Not available										There are programs for Continental Refugees and Repatriates but the rules are severely tightened to prevent as little new migrants as possible to benefit from them.
Greece
Hungary
Ireland		Not available						Available
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg Luxembourgian nationality law
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania												Special arrangements for citizens of Moldova
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain	Not available
Sweden
Singapore
NorwayNorwegian nationality law						Min 4 years, see Norwegian nationality law#Naturalisation as a Norwegian citizen for more details.					Min 7 years, see Norwegian nationality law#Naturalisation as a Norwegian citizen for more details.	Citizens of other Nordic Council countries may naturalise after a two-year residence
Country	Employer Sponsored Work Visa	Independent Work Visa	Businessman, Self-employed or Entrepreneur	Investor	Ph.D. or Scientist	Spouse	Asylum Seeker	By birth	Studying as a migration route	Illegal Migrant	Citizenship	Special arrangements

Important details on immigration law of different countries

It is important to consider the details of immigration law of the country of your choice before investing your time and efforts into potential citizenship. A tiny detail could be a blocking issue.

Country	Requirements and restrictions before settlement	Requirements and restrictions after settlement	Will resident visa holder dependant be allowed to work as well?	Is it possible to bring old parents once got settlement?	Is it guaranteed that immigration legislation would not be changed retrospectively and were there retrospective changes of immigration law previously?	Access to social benefits before settlement	Access to social benefits after settlement	Is it possible to deprive of earned citizenship? (apart from obvious reasons like proven deception in application to citizenship or terrorism)	Would the country require to surrender a previous citizenship(s) to apply for a citizenship of this country?	Would the country require to surrender its citizenship if its citizen applied for a citizenship of other country?
USA			No						No	No, but you will be required to pay taxes to US government regardless where the income is earned
United Kingdom	No more than 180 days spent overseas within 5 years, no more than 90 days per trip.	Settlement would be cancelled after certain number of days spent abroad	Yes, dependants will have a right to work	Theoretically you can bring a single parent if you are the only supporter. Many people had to do it through a court.	It has been changed retrospectively in the past and likely to change retrospectively in the future	No access to public funds.	Yes	Yes, for potentially unlimited number of reasons British nationality law#Deprivation of British nationality	No British nationality law#Dual nationality and dual citizenship	No British nationality law#Dual nationality and dual citizenship
Canada									No
Australia
New Zealand
Israel									Yes, unless citizenship obtained by Law of Return
Germany									Yes
Ukraine										Yes
Norway Norwegian nationality law								Yes Norwegian nationality law#Loss of Norwegian citizenship	Yes Norwegian nationality law#Dual citizenship	Yes Norwegian nationality law#Dual citizenship
Russia									Yes
Azerbaijan										Yes
China										Yes
Denmark										Yes
Japan										Yes
India										Yes

Immigration regulation is the control of the people, and their numbers, who may enter a nation's sovereign territory. It applies both to persons seeking to live and work in a particular nation (or part of it) and tourists, persons on layover due to travel issues, and those wishing to study or otherwise make use of a country's facilities.

Immigration control of one form or another is imposed by most countries. It is an inherent right of a sovereign state.

See also

• Asylum shopping
• Immigration regulations of New Zealand

External links

• Citizenship Laws of the World - the most comprehensive although a little bit outdated report by United States Office of Personnel Management Investigations Service PDF, copy: PDF
• American Immigration Law Foundation
• Immigration Equality's Immigration Law Glossary
• ITA's Immigration Law Resources
• Inmigracion es:Inmigración
• US Citizen and Immigration Services
• Siskind's Immigration Bulletin
• Canada Immigration Law - list of 29 occupations open for Immigration
• Comparative Citizenship Analyses by European Union Observatory on Democracy (EUDO)