Legal Immigration to the United States
Lawful permanent residents (LPRs), also known as green-card holders, are persons lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States who have the right to reside, work, study, and own property in the country. They may serve in the U.S. military and apply to become U.S. citizens once they meet eligibility requirements. Close to 1 million people received green cards in 2013, a 4 percent drop from 1.03 million in 2012.
The annual inflow of LPRs has ebbed and flowed with changes in U.S. immigration policy and processing backlogs. There are four main pathways to gain LPR status: family sponsorship, a job offer from a U.S. employer, humanitarian reasons, and selection via a green-card lottery. The immigrant-admission system prioritizes family-based immigrants, followed by employer-sponsored immigrants and those who arrive as humanitarian migrants. A total of 55,000 green cards are reserved for the lottery, known as the Diversity Visa program. Click here for an interactive chart showing the annual number of new LPRs between 1820 and 2013.
Using data from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, this Migration Policy Institute Spotlight provides information on foreign nationals who were granted LPR status during fiscal year (FY) 2013, focusing on the type and broad class of admission, major countries of origin, and geographic distribution within the United States.
