Two-thirds of legal immigrants eligible for citizenship

Written by Elizabeth Aguilera
12:12 p.m., Dec. 8, 2011

Of the 12.6 million legal permanent residents in the U.S., two-thirds were eligible to become citizens in 2010, according to an analysis of immigration statistics by the Migration Policy Intitute.

The Institute compiled data released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its annual Yearbook of Immigration Statistics for 2010. Those who are considered legal permanent residents are green card holders.

From the report:
•The law allows for three types of applications for entry: family reunification, employment sponsorship and humanitarian cases.
•The number of new arrivals remained fairly stable at about 420,000 annually since 1986
•In 2010 more than 1 million people were granted permanent resident status, of those 45.7 percent were newly arrived and 54.3 percent already live in the U.S. under other permits and had applied to change their status
•Of those granted legal permanent residence, 66 percent of those were for family reunification, employment reasons accounted for 14 percent and 13 percent were those in the U.S. who entered as refugees or asylees who adjusted their status
•The top five countries of birth for the new legal permanent residents were Mexico, China, India, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic, these account for 37.5 percent of new green card holders
•The second set of countries account for another 12.6 percent of legal permanent residents were Cuba, Vietnam, Haiti, Colombia and Korea
•Top destination states for new legal permanent residents were California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois
•The State Department accepted more than 12.1 million qualified applications for the 2011 green card lottery, which allows 55,000 diversity visas for citizens from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S.

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