Immigration law is the name given to the branch of law that covers U.S. citizenship, loss of citizenship, and the admission and removal of aliens. Legal immigration involves immigrants, i.e., persons seeking a permanent residence card or "green card," and non-immigrants, persons seeking temporary entry to the U.S. under a non-immigrant visa category. Immigration also encompasses asylum, naturalization, denaturalization, deportation, as well as immigration crimes, including illegal immigration, or aliens who enter the U.S. and obtain work illegally. Please read on to find an immigration attorney, immigration lawyer, or to learn more about the new immigration law.

CITIZENSHIP

A person can acquire United States citizenship in a number of ways.

• In general, a person who is born in the United States is automatically a U.S. citizen
• In certain situations, if you weren't born in the United States, you can petition the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (previously INS) for a certificate of citizenship showing that you derived citizenship at birth from a United States citizen parent or grandparent who was living abroad. Depending upon the circumstances and whether you are legally residing in the United States, you may get a certificate of citizenship even if your parent or grandparent wasn't a U.S. citizen at the time you were born abroad, but later became a U.S. citizen.
• The most common way for a person not born in the United States to become a U.S. citizen is through the naturalization process.