Race/Ethnicity and Skin Color on the Likelihood of Obtaining Various U.S. Legal Permanent Resident Visa Types

• In Event: 242 - Section on International Migration Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

A great deal of attention has recently been focused on America’s undocumented immigrants, a population estimated at around 11.7 million people (Passel, Cohn, and Gonzalez-Barrera 2004). Much less attention has been paid (in both scholarly and academic circles) to legal immigrants, although in 2010 (the most recent year for which complete data are available), the Department of Homeland Security granted 1,042,625 permanent resident visas. Indeed, since 1994 when the government began to publish the Annual Flow Report, we have granted between 700,000 to around 1,300,000 new legal immigrant visas annually.
It is known that the type of visa being applied for (the various types are explained later) accounts for some of the variation in processing length, and also that lost paperwork is a significant factor (Jasso 2011). This study found evidence that visa processing duration varies depending on race, but once visa type is accounted for, the race effect disappears. Different race/ethnicities apply for different visas and thus have varying wait times. Are some race/ethnicities more likely to have one type of visa? This study aims to compare racial/ethnic differences and skin color in different types of visas to the United States.

Author

• Lindsey Singer, University of Central Florida