Roughly one million people become lawful permanent residents of the United States each year, and that is the clearest answer to how many immigrants come to the US each year. On top of that, the government records well over 100 million temporary admissions annually, and demographers estimate somewhere between 11 million and 13.7 million people live in the country without legal authorization. In FY 2023, the most recent year with complete data, 1,172,910 people received green cards and an estimated 132 million nonimmigrant admissions were recorded.1OHSS. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Type and Major Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2014 to 20232OHSS. US Nonimmigrant Admissions: 2023 No single number tells the full story, because permanent, temporary, and unauthorized migration are tracked through separate systems at very different scales.
New Permanent Residents Each Year
The steadiest measure of permanent immigration is the annual count of new Lawful Permanent Residents, better known as green card holders. From FY 2014 through FY 2023, yearly grants ranged from about 707,000 to nearly 1.2 million, averaging close to one million.1OHSS. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Type and Major Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2014 to 2023
Those totals combine two groups: people arriving from abroad on immigrant visas and people already in the country who adjust from a temporary status. External shocks can move the number sharply. In FY 2020, green card grants fell to roughly 707,000 as consulates closed during the pandemic, the lowest total since 2003.1OHSS. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Type and Major Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2014 to 2023 By FY 2023, cleared backlogs pushed the annual figure well above the long-run average.
How Green Cards Break Down by Category
Federal law splits green cards among several categories, each with its own rules and, in most cases, its own numerical cap. Across FY 2014 through FY 2023, the mix looked roughly like this:1OHSS. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Type and Major Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2014 to 2023
- Family-based, about 65%. This is the largest share. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents) face no annual cap. Other family relationships, such as adult children, siblings of citizens, and spouses and children of green card holders, fall under a statutory floor of 226,000 visas per year.3eCFR. 22 CFR Part 42 Subpart C – Immigrants Not Subject to Numerical Limitations of INA 201 and 2024Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1151 – Worldwide Level of Immigration
- Employment-based, about 16%. Capped at 140,000 per year for workers with specialized skills, advanced degrees, investors, and their immediate family members.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1151 – Worldwide Level of Immigration
- Humanitarian, about 11%. Refugees and asylees who later adjust to permanent residence.
- Diversity Visa Lottery, about 4%. Up to 55,000 green cards per year go to nationals of countries with historically low immigration to the U.S.5Federal Register. Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
- Other categories, about 4%. Smaller groups including certain Iraqi and Afghan employees of the U.S. government, victims of trafficking or serious crimes, and people granted cancellation of removal.
Because immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are uncapped, family numbers swing year to year. In FY 2023, immediate-relative admissions alone reached 551,590, and capped family preferences added another 204,240.1OHSS. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Type and Major Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2014 to 2023
Why Caps and Backlogs Hold the Number Down
On top of category caps, no single country’s nationals may take more than 7% of the family-preference and employment-based green cards issued in a given year.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1152 – Numerical Limitations on Individual Foreign States For employment-based visas, that works out to roughly 9,800 per country per year. When demand from one country far exceeds its share, a backlog forms and applicants wait years or even decades.
The State Department’s monthly Visa Bulletin shows just how long. As of March 2026, Indian nationals waiting for an employment-based second-preference green card (advanced-degree professionals) had a priority date of September 2013, a wait of more than 12 years. Mexican applicants in the family category for married children of U.S. citizens had a priority date of May 2001.7Travel.State.Gov. Visa Bulletin for March 2026 An approved petition is essentially a place in line, not a promise of near-term admission, and the annual green card total reflects only the people who actually reach the front of the line in that year.
Refugee Admissions
The number of refugees admitted each year is set by a presidential determination rather than a fixed statutory cap, so it moves with each administration. The FY 2026 determination set a ceiling of 7,500 refugee admissions, down sharply from 125,000 in FY 2024.8Federal Register. Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2026
Actual arrivals usually fall well below the ceiling. Through the first four months of FY 2026 (October 2025 through January 2026), 1,651 refugees had arrived.9State Department. Refugee Arrivals by State and Nationality – Fiscal Year 2026 Over the FY 2014 through FY 2023 decade, refugee adjustments to permanent residence ranged from about 29,000 to 156,000 per year.1OHSS. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Type and Major Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2014 to 2023
Temporary Visitors: A Much Bigger Number
Temporary admissions dwarf permanent immigration. DHS recorded an estimated 132 million nonimmigrant admissions in FY 2023, of which about 68 million were formal I-94 admissions (the primary tracking measure for most visa categories).2OHSS. US Nonimmigrant Admissions: 2023 Before the pandemic, FY 2017 saw roughly 181 million.10OHSS. Nonimmigrant Admissions by Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2015 to 2017 The total collapsed to about 35 million in FY 2021 and has been climbing back since.11OHSS. US Nonimmigrant Admissions: 2021
One important caveat. These figures count entries, not people. A Canadian business traveler who crosses the border 50 times in a year generates 50 admission records. The count is dominated by tourists and business visitors entering on B visas or through the Visa Waiver Program. In FY 2021, when tourism was suppressed and the mix was less skewed, temporary workers and their families made up about 14% of I-94 admissions and students about 6%.11OHSS. US Nonimmigrant Admissions: 2021
Caps on Temporary Work Visas
Most visitor categories have no numerical limit, but the major work programs do. For FY 2026, the H-1B program for specialty-occupation workers has a regular cap of 65,000 visas plus a separate allotment of 20,000 for workers with U.S. advanced degrees.12USCIS. USCIS Reaches Fiscal Year 2026 H-1B Cap Demand routinely exceeds the cap, and USCIS uses a lottery to select which petitions get processed. Workers at universities and nonprofit or government research organizations are generally exempt from cap counting.
The H-2B program for seasonal nonagricultural workers has a statutory cap of 66,000 per year, split between the two halves of the fiscal year. For FY 2026, DHS authorized an additional 64,716 supplemental visas on top of the base, nearly doubling the available slots.13Federal Register. Exercise of Time-Limited Authority To Increase the Fiscal Year 2026 Numerical Limitation for the H-2B Temporary Nonagricultural Worker Program
Estimating Unauthorized Immigration
Unauthorized immigration is the hardest piece to measure, because these arrivals don’t pass through a formal admissions process. Estimates come from survey data, border encounter records, and modeling rather than direct counts, and different methods produce different numbers.
The DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics estimated the unauthorized population at roughly 11.0 million as of January 2022, up from about 10.5 million in January 2020 but still below the 11.6 million estimated for 2010.14Office of Homeland Security Statistics. Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2018 to January 2022 The Migration Policy Institute, using a different methodology, put the figure at 13.7 million as of mid-2023, reflecting what the organization describes as sharp growth after more than a decade of relative stagnation.15Migration Policy Institute. Changing Origins, Rising Numbers: Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States
Part of the annual unauthorized flow comes from visa overstays. DHS reported 574,740 suspected in-country overstays at the end of FY 2019, out of nearly 56 million expected departures tracked through air and sea ports, an overstay rate of about 1%.16Department of Homeland Security. Fiscal Year 2019 Entry/Exit Overstay Report That figure excludes land-port entries, so the true number is likely higher. The rest of unauthorized growth comes from people who cross a border without inspection.
Costs That Shape the Annual Total
Statutory caps aren’t the only ceiling on legal immigration. For family-based green cards, the U.S. citizen or permanent resident sponsor must file an Affidavit of Support proving household income of at least 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. For 2026, that means a minimum of $27,050 for a two-person household in the 48 contiguous states, rising for each additional family member.17USCIS. I-864P, HHS Poverty Guidelines for Affidavit of Support
Applicants also pay government filing fees, medical examination costs (typically several hundred dollars for the required civil surgeon exam), and often attorney fees. Combined with the multi-year waits in oversubscribed categories, those costs mean the annual admission totals reflect not just legal limits but practical ones. Some eligible applicants never finish the process because they can’t afford it or can’t wait long enough.