B-1

• Alien visitors to the United States who come for business are covered by the B-1 non-immigrant visa (NIV) category. By and large, periods of stay in the United States under the B-1 visa category are brief and involve the conducting of business on the behalf of an employer which is located overseas. Trips that are made to the United States in this category cannot involve employment in the U.S. However, as noted, an individual can use the B visa to conduct business on behalf of an overseas employer. For details of B-1 visa and status, please click http://www.hooyou.com/nonimmigration/b1.html.

B-2

• Alien visitors to the United States who come for pleasure are covered by the B-2 non-immigrant visa (NIV) category. The B-2 NIV category is broad sweeping and the great majority of visitors who enter the U.S. every year do so as non-immigrant visitors under the B-2 visa category. By and large, periods of stay in the United States under the B-2 visa category are brief and include such activities as vacationing, visiting relatives, visiting prospective academic institutions, and seeking health care. Trips that are made to the United States in this category cannot involve employment or, with a few exceptions, academic study programs. However, as noted, an individual can use the B-2 visa to visit prospective academic institutions, prior to undertaking a program of study. For details of B-2 visa and status, please click http://www.hooyou.com/nonimmigration/b2.html.

Beneficiary

• Aliens on whose behalf a U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident, or employer have filed a petition for such aliens to receive immigration benefits from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Beneficiaries generally receive a lawful status as a result of their relationship to a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or U.S. employer. A beneficiary can either be the principal beneficiary, or a derivative beneficiary.For more information about petitioner and beneficiary in immigration petitions, please click http://www.hooyou.com/ip/index.html.For more information about petitioner and beneficiary in H-1B petition, please click http://www.hooyou.com/h-1b/index.html.

BIA

• BIA stands for Board of Immigration Appeals. BIA is the appellate body designated to review decisions from the immigration court and, in some instances, from Department of Homeland Security. BIA is part of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is within the U.S. Department of Justice. For more information about BIA and EOIR, please click http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/.

Border Crosser

• An alien resident of the United States reentering the country after an absence of less than six months in Canada or Mexico, or a nonresident alien entering the United States across the Canadian border for stays of no more than six months or across the Mexican border for stays of no more than 72 hours.

Business Nonimmigrant

• An alien coming temporarily to the United States to engage in commercial transactions which do not involve gainful employment in the United States, i.e., engaged in international commerce on behalf of a foreign firm, not employed in the U.S. labor market, and receives no salary from U.S. sources.

Business Necessity

• Basically, business necessity means that a job requirement must bear a reasonable relationship to the occupation in the context of the employer’s business and is essential to perform in a reasonable manner the job duties as described by the employer. For more information about business necessity, please click http://www.hooyou.com/lc/faq.html.

Cancellation of Removal

• Cancellation of Removal is a legal act of allowing an alien who is in removal proceedings to retain lawful permanent resident status. For details of Cancellation of Removal, please click http://www.hooyou.com/asylum/index.html.

Certificate of Citizenship

• Identity document proving U.S. citizenship. Certificates of citizenship are issued to derivative citizens and to persons who acquired U.S. citizenship (see definitions for Acquired and Derivative Citizenship).

Certificate of Translation

• Certificate of Translationis a formal statement in which a translator shows that he or she has accurately translated a foreign-language document into English.

Change of status

• When the alien is already in the U.S. in a non-immigrant status, he may change his current nonimmigrant status to another nonimmigrant status. This process is called change of status, to distinguish from adjustment of status, which signifies the process of change from nonimmigrant status to immigrant status.The most common types of nonimmigrant status include B, F, H, J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, TN, etc. For F status, please click http://www.hooyou.com/f-1/index.html. For H status, please click http://www.hooyou.com/h-1b/index.html.

Child

• Generally, an unmarried person under 21 years of age who is: a child born in wedlock; a stepchild, provided that the child was under 18 years of age at the time that the marriage creating the stepchild relationship occurred; a legitimated child, provided that the child was legitimated while in the legal custody of the legitimating parent; a child born out of wedlock, when a benefit is sought on the basis of its relationship with its mother, or to its father if the father has or had a bona fide relationship with the child; a child adopted while under 16 years of age who has resided since adoption in the legal custody of the adopting parents for at least 2 years; or an orphan, under 16 years of age, who has been adopted abroad by a U.S. citizen or has an immediate-relative visa petition submitted in his/her behalf and is coming to the United States for adoption by a U.S. citizen.

Child Citizenship Act

• The Child Citizenship Act was enacted on October 17, 2000 and became effective on February 27, 2001. Under the Act, children of a U.S. citizen parent, whether natural or adopted, automatically become U.S. citizens if they qualify. This represents a significant change in the law because prior to the act, these children had to go through the naturalization process to become citizens. Under the Act, these children no longer had to go through a relatively lengthy naturalization process to become citizens but were given the status of U.S. citizenship by merely qualifying and without having to do anything further to attain citizenship. For more information about Child Citizenship Act, please click http://www.hooyou.com/citizenship/childcitizenshipact.html.

Civil Surgeon

• A medically trained, licensed and experienced doctor practicing in the U.S. who is certified by USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service). These medical professionals receive U.S. immigration-focused training in order to provide examinations as required by the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) and USCIS. For medical examinations given overseas, please see Panel Physician. IMPORTANT: medical examinations will not be recognized if they are given by a doctor in the U.S. who is not a Civil Surgeon; please make sure that your appointment is with a Civil Surgeon or your results and documents will be invalid.

Code of Federal Regulations

• Code of Federal Regulations (or CFR) is the official interpretations of laws passed by Congress. These interpretations are known as "regulations." Regulations are first published in a government publication called the Federal Register. After publication in the Federal Register, regulations can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Most immigration regulations are in Title 8 CFR, Aliens and Nationality.

Common Law Marriage

• In some states, a man and a woman can become legally married without a license or ceremony. This type of marriage is known as common law marriage. In order to have a valid common law marriage, the couple must live together for a significant period of time, intend to be married, and hold themselves out as husband and wife. However, a common law marriage will not be accepted for immigration purposes, unless it is recognized as legal in the jurisdiction of residence or last residence. For more information about marriage and immigration, please click http://www.hooyou.com/marriage/index.html.

Conditional Permanent Resident

• It’s also known as Conditional Green Card.  It can be issued either based on marriage, or based on investments (EB-5). If an alien is the spouse of a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident and the marriage occurred less than two years before the alien spouse is admitted as a U.S. permanent resident, or if an investor acquires permanent residence through investment, the permanent residence status is conditional. The alien spouse and the investor are given conditional resident status on the day he is lawfully admitted to the United States on an immigrant visa or receives adjustment of status where he stays in the U.S.A conditional permanent resident must file a petition to remove the condition during the 90 days before the card expires. The conditional card cannot be renewed. The conditions must be removed or the resident will lose the permanent resident status.

Conditional Resident

• Any alien granted permanent resident status on a conditional basis (e.g., a spouse of a U.S. citizen; an immigrant investor), who is required to petition for the removal of the set conditions before the second anniversary of the approval of his or her conditional status.

Consular processing

• Consular Processing is the process in which the beneficiary of an immigration petition (either family based or employment based) is outside the U.S. and applies for an immigrant visa at a U.S. consulate overseas. This process will commence only when the underlying immigration petition is approved and visa number is available. If the beneficiary is in the U.S., he/she may apply for adjustment of status through the USCIS or consular processing unless he/she is not qualified. For more information about consular processing, please click http://www.hooyou.com/consularprocess/index.html.

Country of Birth

• The country in which a person is born.

Country of Chargeability

• The independent country to which an immigrant entering under the preference system is accredited for purposes of numerical limitations.

Country of Citizenship

• The country in which a person is born (and has not renounced or lost citizenship) or naturalized and to which that person owes allegiance and by which he or she is entitled to be protected.

Country of Former Allegiance

• The previous country of citizenship of a naturalized U.S. citizen or of a person who derived U.S. citizenship.

Country of Last Residence

• The country in which an alien habitually resided prior to entering the United States.

Country of Nationality

• The country of a person’s citizenship or country in which the person is deemed a national.

CPT(Curricular Practical Training)

• Curricular practical training is defined to be alternative work/study, internship, cooperative education, or any other type of required internship or practicum that is offered by sponsoring employers through cooperative agreements with the school. An F-1 student may be authorized by the DSO to participate in a curricular practical training program that is an integral part of an established curriculum. To grant authorization for a student to engage in curricular practical training, a DSO at a SEVIS school will update the student's record in SEVIS as being authorized for curricular practical training that is directly related to the student's major area of study. The DSO will indicate whether the training is full-time or part-time, the employer and location, and the employment start and end date. The DSO will then print a copy of the employment page of the SEVIS Form I-20 indicating that curricular practical training has been approved. The DSO must sign, date, and return the SEVIS Form I-20 to the student prior to the student's commencement of employment. For details of CPT, please click http://www.hooyou.com/f-1/cpt.htm.

Crewman

• A crewman is a foreign national serving in a capacity required for normal operations and service on board a vessel or aircraft. Crewmen are admitted for twenty-nine days, with no extensions. Two categories of crewmen are defined in the INA: D1, departing from the United States with the vessel or aircraft on which he arrived or some other vessel or aircraft; and D2, departing from Guam with the vessel on which he arrived.

Crime of Moral Turpitude

• Under the U.S. immigration law, an alien or a lawful permanent resident, who was convicted or who admitted having committed of a crime of moral turpitude on which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed, is barred from admission. Because of the broad implication of crimes of moral turpitude, most crimes will fall under this category. Basically, any act, which by itself is morally reprehensible and intrinsically wrong or evil by its nature, will render such an act a crime of moral turpitude even without statutory prohibition. Common examples of crimes involving moral turpitude include aggravated assault, sexual offenses, child abuse, aggravated driving while under the influence of drug or alcohol, illegal use of credit card, stealing cellular air time, larceny, malicious trespass, willful tax evasion, possession of stolen mail, counterfeiting, and perjury. For more information about crime of moral turpitude, please click http://www.hooyou.com/badacts/onadmission.html.

CSC

• CSC stands for CaliforniaServiceCenter. The USCIS Service Centers were established to handle the mail, file, data entry, and adjudication of most applications for immigration services and benefits. The CSC has jurisdiction over certain applications and petitions from people residing in the following jurisdictions: California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and the Territory of Guam. For information about CSC please click http://uscis.gov/graphics/fieldoffices/california/aboutus.htm.

Customary marriage

• A marriage not performed according to legal proceeding of local civil authorities, but rather according to local custom, is called customary marriage. A customary marriage is valid for immigration purposes if the marriage is recognized by the civil authorities in the place where the marriage is performed.For more information about marriage and immigration, please click http://www.hooyou.com/marriage/index.html.

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