Annual Immigration to the United States: The Real Numbers
By excluding long-term temporary visa holders and others likely to settle in the United States indefinitely, official reporting of lawful permanent residence undercounts true annual immigration.
This fact sheet draws from the Department of Homeland Security’s 2005 and 2006 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics data to offer annual permanent immigration measures that better reflect actual immigration trends and practices. While official annual immigration figures simply account for those who obtain lawful permanent resident status in a particular year, this report suggests that accurately gauging immigration levels require a more complex approach due to the nature of certain forms of temporary immigration and unauthorized immigration.
The figure presented by this report approximates the true number of people who enter the United States each year who are likely to stay indefinitely by including estimates of prospective temporary-to-permanent status adjusters, unauthorized entrants, and visa overstays in the calculus.
About the U.S. Immigration Policy Program
The U.S. Immigration Policy Program provides analysis of U.S. immigration pathways, the impacts of enforcement and other policies, and the characteristics of immigrant populations.
