/*SHORT TITLE:  Overview: Legal Immigrant Public Use File FY 2001 */

Overview: Legal Immigrant Public Use File FY 2001

This public use file provides data on legal immigrants, that is, aliens who
were granted lawful permanent residence in the United States during FY
2001.  Included as legal immigrants are 1) aliens previously living abroad
who obtained immigrant visas through the U.S. Department of State allowing
them to enter the United States and 2) aliens who were already living in
the United States and adjusted their immigrant status through the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).  The data measure the "flow"
of legal immigrants during a fiscal year.  The Census Bureau is the primary
source of information on the foreign-born population at one point in
time. The Census Bureau distinguishes U.S. citizens from noncitizens but
not legal from illegal immigrants.

Data for legal immigrant public use files are obtained from administrative
records of INS. Most of the information in these records is self-reported
by aliens and entered into an automated application case processing system
at INS service centers. While efforts have been made to ensure that the
data are complete and accurate, there may be some inconsistencies and
missing information.  Note that in recent years, including FY 2001, a
substantial proportion of records are missing values for: nonimmigrant
class of admission, nonimmigrant year of entry, and occupation.  For more
information, see the Legal Immigrant section in the FY 2001 Statistical
Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(www.immigration.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/ybpage.htm)

Comparison between the FY 2001 and Prior Legal Immigrant Public Use Files:

The fields included in the FY 2001 public use file are identical to those
in the FY 2000 and FY 1999 public use files. However, note that the layout
for the FY 2001 public use file is different.  In addition, the record
length for the FY 2001 public use file is 82 compared to 81 for the FY 2000
and FY 1999 public use files. One character was added to the nonimmigrant
class of admission field beginning in FY 2001 to be able to distinguish H1A
registered nurses in health professional shortage areas from H1B temporary
workers in specialty occupations and H2A temporary workers performing
agricultural services unavailable in the U.S. from H2B temporary skilled
and unskilled workers performing services or labor unavailable in the U.S.
In public use files for prior years, S8 was used to identify registered
nurses, leaving the H1 category for H1B temporary workers in specialty
occupations.  Similarly, S9 was used in previous years to identify
temporary workers in agriculture, leaving the H2 category for H2B temporary
skilled and unskilled workers performing services or labor unavailable in
the U.S.