Immigration Terms and Definitions

Alien
Any person not a citizen or national of the United States.

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

Intracompany Transferee
An alien, employed for at least one continuous year out of the last three by an international firm or corporation, who seeks to enter the United States temporarily in order to continue to work for the same employer, or a subsidiary or affiliate, in a capacity that is primarily managerial, executive, or involves specialized knowledge, and the alien’s spouse and minor unmarried children.

Departure Under Safeguards
The departure of an illegal alien from the United States which is physically observed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official.

Temporary Worker
An alien coming to the United States to work for a temporary period of time. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and the Immigration Act of 1990, as well as other legislation, revised existing classes and created new classes of nonimmigrant admission.

Country of Chargeability
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.

Cancellation of Removal
A discretionary benefit adjusting an alien’s status from that of deportable alien to one lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

Overseas parole
Authorized at an USCIS District or suboffice while the alien is still overseas; designed to constitute long-term admission to the United States. In recent years, most of the aliens USCIS has processed through overseas parole have arrived under special legislation or international migration agreements.

Derivative Citizenship
Citizenship conveyed to children through the naturalization of parents or, under certain circumstances, to foreign-born children adopted by U.S. citizen parents, provided certain conditions are met.

Principal Alien
The alien who applies for immigrant status and from whom another alien may derive lawful status under immigration law or regulations (usually spouses and minor unmarried children).