Subject Guide
Immigration Law
Immigration Law is the area of federal law that governs how non-citizens enter, remain in, are removed from, and obtain status in the United States. It is administered primarily under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and federal agency regulations, with the federal government holding broad authority over admission and removal.
What Immigration Law covers
Immigration Law covers the rules for who may enter the United States, on what terms they may stay, how status is granted or lost, and how the government removes those without lawful status. The field is federal in character: the INA and implementing regulations control, and immigration enforcement and adjudication are carried out by federal agencies and federal immigration courts rather than state authorities. Core concepts include the distinction between immigrant (permanent) and nonimmigrant (temporary) status, the grounds of inadmissibility and deportability, relief from removal such as asylum and withholding, the family- and employment-based petition systems, and the limited but important role of judicial review over agency decisions. On exams, the subject rewards a structured approach: identify the person's current status, the agency action at issue, the applicable statutory grounds, and any available relief or review.
Key topics
- Status & Visas
- Non-citizens are classified as either immigrants seeking lawful permanent residence or nonimmigrants admitted temporarily for a defined purpose, with admission conditioned on satisfying visa eligibility and avoiding statutory grounds of inadmissibility under the INA.
- Removal
- Removal is the federal process for expelling a non-citizen who is inadmissible or deportable on statutory grounds, adjudicated before an immigration judge where the government generally bears the burden for those already admitted and the non-citizen may seek relief.
- Asylum
- Asylum may be granted to an applicant present in the United States who shows a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, subject to statutory bars and filing deadlines.
- Family Immigration
- Family-based immigration allows U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to petition for qualifying relatives, with immediate relatives of citizens exempt from numerical caps and other family preference categories subject to annual limits and waiting periods.
- Employment Immigration
- Employment-based immigration permits non-citizens to obtain temporary or permanent status through job offers or qualifying skills, typically requiring an employer petition and, for many permanent categories, labor certification showing no qualified U.S. workers are available.
- Judicial Review
- Federal courts may review final agency immigration decisions, but the INA channels and limits that review, generally requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies and restricting review of certain discretionary determinations while preserving review of legal and constitutional questions.
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Frequently asked questions
- Is Immigration Law tested on the bar exam?
- Immigration Law is generally not one of the subjects tested on the MBE or the standard Uniform Bar Examination essay rotation. It is, however, a major practice area and a common law school elective, and the analytical skills it demands—reading a complex federal statute, applying defined categories, and identifying available relief—transfer directly to tested subjects like Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure.
- What is the difference between an immigrant and a nonimmigrant visa?
- An immigrant visa leads to lawful permanent residence (a green card) and the right to live in the United States permanently, while a nonimmigrant visa authorizes a temporary stay for a specific purpose such as tourism, study, or employment. Nonimmigrants must generally show they intend to comply with the temporary terms of admission, whereas immigrant categories are built around permanent settlement.
- What is the difference between asylum and withholding of removal?
- Asylum is a discretionary form of relief for a person with a well-founded fear of persecution on a protected ground, and it can lead to permanent residence. Withholding of removal is a separate, mandatory protection that bars returning a person to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened, but it carries a higher standard of proof and grants no path to permanent residence.
- Can a court review an immigration decision?
- Yes, but federal judicial review of immigration decisions is limited by the INA. Courts generally require a non-citizen to exhaust administrative remedies first, and the statute restricts review of certain discretionary determinations while preserving review of legal and constitutional questions, often through a petition for review of a final removal order in a federal court of appeals.
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