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a foreign port or place or from an outlying possession.” Id.
§ 101(a)(13), 66 Stat. at 167.³
c. Obtaining LPR status. – As today, status as an alien law-
fully admitted for permanent residence (LPR or “green card” sta-
tus) enabled an alien’s eventual naturalization as a U.S. citizen. Id.
§ 318, 66 Stat. at 244 (“no person shall be naturalized unless he
has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent res-
idence”), codified as amended at 8 U.S.C. § 1429. The INA of 1952
defined two processes for obtaining LPR status.
First, an alien could apply for an immigrant visa at a U.S. con-
sulate or embassy abroad, wait for one to become available and to
issue, and then travel to a U.S. port of entry and be admitted for
permanent residence under that visa. Id. §§ 101(a)(9) (consular
officer), 203 (numerical limits), 211 (admission), 221 (consular is-
suance), 66 Stat. at 166-67, 178–79, 181-82, 191–92. Aliens often
had to wait their turn for immigrant visas to become available be-
cause of annual limits on visa issuance. See id. § 201, 66 Stat. at
175-76, codified as amended at 8 U.S.C. § 1151.4
Second, an alien lawfully admitted to the United States in one
status could, while here, adjust to LPR status. Under INA
§ 245(a), an alien “lawfully admitted to the United States as a
bona fide nonimmigrant,” and who so entered the country, could
petition for adjustment to LPR status upon certain showings re-
lated to immigrant visas. Id. § 245(a), 66 Stat. at 217. But an alien’s
parole from detention pending exclusion proceedings was not “an
admission of the alien,” id. § 212(d)(5), 66 Stat. at 188, and thus
did not allow the alien to petition to adjust to LPR status.
³ One exception was made, providing that LPR aliens were not “regarded”
as “making an entry into the United States for purposes of the immigration
laws” if they did not intend or reasonably expect to depart from the United
States in the first place. Id.; see Rosenberg v. Fleuti, 374 U.S. 449 (1963) (inter-
preting that clause). The need for that exception confirms that the term “en-
try” itself refers to a physical movement into the country.
4 Certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, however, have been ex-
empted from immigrant-visa quotas. E.g., id. § 101(a)(27)(A), 66 Stat. at 169
(“nonquota immigrants”); id. § 201(c), 66 Stat. at 176.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
