Immigration
The INA, numerical caps and the per-country limit
The Immigration and Nationality Act sets out every category of admission. Immigrant visas divide into family-sponsored and employment-based preferences, most of which are numerically capped, while non-immigrant categories such as H-1B, L-1 and F-1 permit temporary stays for defined purposes. Immediate relatives of US citizens are exempt from the caps, which is why that route is far faster.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Exclusively federal; states may not create their own admission or removal rules
- Deadline — H-1B cap registration: filed in the March lottery for an October start
- Deadline — Change of address: reported to USCIS within 10 days
- Deadline — Appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals: 30 days from the immigration judge's decision
- Deadline — Naturalisation: five years of permanent residence, or three if married to a citizen
Governing law
- Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101 et seq.
- INA § 203preference allocations and per-country limits
- 8 C.F.R. parts 204 and 214
- Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act 1996
In practice
The per-country limit of 7 per cent of the annual total is the single most consequential rule in the system: it is applied to countries of birth rather than population, so employment-based applicants from India face waits measured in decades while an identical applicant from a low-demand country is current. Immigration judges sit within the Executive Office for Immigration Review inside the Department of Justice, not the judicial branch, and their decisions are reviewed by the BIA and then the circuit courts of appeals.