RP 4th in number of legal US immigrants

The Philippines is now the fourth largest group of legal migrants to the United States, according to the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS).

Excluding illegal immigrants, 51,308 Filipinos migrated to the US last year, the fourth largest group of immigrants behind Mexico (219,380), India, (71,105) and China (61,282).

The Philippines belonged to a group of five countries that accounted for 40 percent of the 1,063,732 people who immigrated to the US last year, the BCIS said.

The US BCIS also reported that the major categories of immigrants were immediate relatives of US citizens (486,748), family preferences (187,069), employment preferences (179,968), refugee or asylee adjustments (126,084) and diversity program (42,829).

According to official data, 65 percent of legal immigrants settled in California (291,216), New York (114,827), Florida (90,819), New Jersey (57,721) and Illinois (47,235).

Most legal immigrants were already living in the US and became permanent residents by applying for adjustment status with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which became the BCIS last year.

The BCIS pointed out that the number of persons who were granted permanent residency in the US last year was about the same as that of 2001.