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An immigrant or lawful permanent resident is an individual allowed to live and work in the United States permanently. To obtain immigrant status, an individual needs to meet both the substantive and numerical requirements prescribed by the law.
Substantively, one must qualify as a specified close relative of a U.S. citizen or another legal permanent resident, as an employee of a sponsoring employer or prospective employer, or as a "diversity immigrant" under a visa "lottery" program. In addition, the potential immigrant must not fall within any of the general categories of inadmissible aliens specified by the law. These categories include criminality, mental defect, drug trafficking, communist party affiliation, and terrorism.
In addition to these (substantive) requirements, there are also country-specific (considering individual countries) and worldwide (considering total number of immigrants into U.S.) quota limits imposed on categories of family and employment-based immigrant visas. Currently, about 670,000 immigrant visas are available each year, and this may result in delayed processing of applications.
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