Meanings of Immigration (I.I)

Immigration law is full of words and terms whose meanings  are not obvious. See the plain English definitions below.

• Accompanying relative. In most cases, a person who is eligible to receive some type of visa or green card can also obtain green cards or similar visas for immediate family members. These family members are called accompanying relatives and may include only your spouse and unmarried children under age of 21.

• Advance Parole. Advance Parole may be granted to a person who is  already in the U.S., but needs to leave temporarily and return without a visa. This is most common when someone has a green card application in process and wants to leave the U.S. for a trip.

• Alien Registration Receipt Card. The official name used in immigration law for a green card. The USCIS calls this document the I-551.

• Asylum status. People seeking asylum status are in a different situation from refugees, even though the  basis for eligibility is very similar. Those applying for refugee status apply form outside the U.S., while potential asylees apply for asylum after having arrived in the United States (for example, on a tourist visa or after illegally crossing the U.S. border).

• Attestation. Sworn statements that employers must make to the U.S. Department or Labor before they may petition to bring foreign workers to the United States. Attestations may include statements that employer is trying to hire more U.S. workers or that foreign workers. Attestation are required only for certain types of employment-based visas.

• Beneficiary. If your relative or employer files a petition to start off your immigration process, you are a beneficiary. Almost all green cards as well as certain types of nonimmigrant visas require petitioners, and whenever there is a petitiones there is a also a beneficiary. The word "beneficiary" comes from the fact that you benefit from the petition by becoming qualified to apply for a green card or visa.

• Border Patrol. The informal name for an agency called Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which, like USCIS, is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Its primary functions include keeping the borders secure from illegal crossers and meeting legal entrants at airports and border posts to check their visas and to decide whether they should be allowed into the United States.