Find out how to check the status of your visa and how to renew, extend or change a visa. If your visa or arrival/departure record is lost or stolen, you will find information on the steps to follow to get another one. Also learn what you can do if your visa application is rejected. If you have lost your visa or arrival/departure records (a Form I-94) to enter the United States, the Bureau of Consular Affairs has guidelines for declaring and reissuing travel documents: Finally, all legal statuses that do not have citizenship are now subject to deportation due to changes in the law that even expel LPRs (see Chapter 2). And while most immigrants, even undocumented, have the potential to “regularize” or legitimize their status and obtain LPR status through marriage, through an employer, or through family petitions, many face significant barriers to adjusting their status, including high fees, language barriers, technical details about the type of time of entry and arrival, and lack of legal expertise. The complexity of the immigration system can itself be a barrier to integration (Table 3-2). In this way, legal status channels immigrants` access to societal benefits in the immediate future, with a direct impact on the life prospects of immigrants and their descendants (Bean et al., 2013, 2015; Massey, 2007, 2013; Marquardt et al., 2011; Menjívar, 2012; Yoshikawa et al., 2013). Interactions with law enforcement officers. If you ever interact with law enforcement, you will be asked to prove your legal status in the United States. If you cannot provide proof, it is likely that ICE will be informed. These changes in access to benefits and sponsorship requirements make it difficult for immigrants of lower socioeconomic status to bring family members to the United States and seek help if they subsequently experience unemployment or low wages.
The delay in family reunification and the absence of a social safety net even complicate the prospects for full integration of LPRs (Enchautegi and Menjívar, 2015). Mixed-status families take different forms. Many include undocumented parents and children born in the United States (or children with different legal status). Mixed-status families also include unauthorized spouses of citizens or LPRs who are excluded from legal status due to the 3- and 10-year prohibitions imposed in the 1996 IIRIRA on immigrants who entered the country without inspection (Migration Policy Institute, 2014). Mixed-status families access these trainings in several ways and have different opportunities to obtain legal status (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2011). Although refugees and refugee claimants receive the most direct integration support, they face the same potential barriers to integration as immigrants in other jurisdictions (Portes & Zhou, 1993). For example, many are Black or Muslim (or both) and may therefore be exposed to discriminatory attitudes and stigmatized for outward manifestations of their faith (McBrien, 2005). In addition, many refugees and asylum-seekers are fleeing violence and may have been forcibly separated from their homes. “Acute” refugees who flee suddenly with little preparation are likely to have very little material wealth and may have been separated from family members (Kunz, 1973). Acute refugees also tend to have lower levels of education and skills than voluntary migrants (Zhou, 2001). And the settlement of refugees in new gateway cities can strain local resources and create tensions with native-born populations (Singer and Wilson, 2007). As described in Chapter 2, the definition of the legal status of the federal government establishes four general categories: permanent, temporary, discretionary and undocumented (see Table 3-2; see also Figure 3-1 for the shares of these categories).
Permanent status is the strongest anchor provided by law, as it allows for labour mobility, confers important constitutional rights and access to certain public services, and can lead to naturalization, provided that the LPR meets a number of additional requirements. Temporary statuses include a variety of employment-based and humanitarian admissions that grant legal presence for limited periods subject to congressional review.