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Alien (law)

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In U.S. law, an alien is a term Americans use for a person (person includes both corporations and humans) who is not a citizen of the United States. A foreigner is a citizen of the United States not a citizen of the state in question as in a New York corporation is a foreign company inside New Jersey. Types of "alien" persons are:

  • An alien insurer is company which is a citizen of another country.
  • An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country.
  • An alien who has temporary or permanent residence in a country (which is foreign to him/her) may be called a resident alien of that country.
  • A visitor with the legal right to visit a country (which is foreign to him/her) may be called a nonresident alien of that country.
  • The term illegal alien commonly refers to a foreign national who resides in another country unlawfully, either by entering that country at a place other than a designated port-of-entry or as result of the expiration of a non-immigrant visa. The important distinction is that this person intends to remain in the country indefinitely. A tourist who has the present intent to leave would be included as a legal alien described above. Today the preferred term by the politically correct is illegal immigrant because the word alien has become unpopular.
  • An enemy alien is an alien who is designated as an enemy; compare to enemy combatant.

  • In Latvian passports, the term alien is used for so-called non-citizens (nepilsoņi): former citizens of USSR who have no citizenship, but have some legal ties with Latvia.

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 14:24:44 PST (GMT -0800)
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