Alien (law)

In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.^[1]

Categorization

Types of "alien" persons are:

• 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. This is a very broad category which includes tourists, guest workers, legal permanent residents and student visa resident aliens.
• 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. This is a subset of the aforementioned legal alien category.
• An alien who is visiting a country (which is foreign to him/her) may be called a nonresident alien of that country. This is a subset of the aforementioned legal alien category.
• An alien who is present in a country (which is foreign to him/her) unlawfully or without the country's authorization is known as an illegal alien of that country.^[2] An 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.
• An enemy alien is an alien who is a national of an enemy country.

Specific jurisdictions

• In U.S. law, an alien is "any person not a citizen or national of the United States."^[3] The U.S. Government's use of alien dates back to 1798, when it was used in the Alien and Sedition Acts.^[4] U.S. law makes a clear distinction between aliens and immigrants by defining immigrants as a subset of aliens.^[3] Although U.S. law provides no overarching explicit definition of the term "illegal alien," the term is used in many statutes^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]} and elsewhere (e.g., court cases, executive orders). U.S. law also uses the term "unauthorized alien."^{[14][15][16][17][18]} U.S. immigration laws do not refer to illegal immigrants, but in common parlance the term "illegal immigrant" is often used to refer to any illegal alien.^[19] Because at law, a corporation is a person, the term alien is not limited to natural humans because what are colloquially called foreign corporations are technically called alien corporations. Because corporations are creations of local state law, a foreign corporation is an out of state corporation.

• In Latvian passports, alien is used for non-citizens (nepilsoņi): former citizens of USSR who don have voting rights for parliament of Latvia but have specific rights and privileges under Latvian law and international bilateral treaties like they are simultaneosly allowed to travel without visas both to EU and Russia, that is not possible for citizens.

• In the United Kingdom, alien means a person who is not:^[20][21]
  • a British citizen
  • a citizen of Ireland,
  • a Commonwealth citizen, or
  • a British protected person.

See also

• Dual citizen
• Enemy alien
• Immigration
• Naturalization
• Gaikokujin
• California Alien Land Law of 1913
• Alien and Sedition Acts
• Non-citizens (Latvia)
• Illegal immigration

References

External links

• Resident Alien Information
• Aliens (Encyclopedic Entry)
• D. C. Earnest Noncitizen Voting Rights: A Survey of an Emerging Democratic Norm, 2003
• University of Minnesota Human Rights Center: Study Guide: The Rights of Non-Citizens, 2003
• UK Aliens' registration cards on The National Archives' website.
• Council of Europe Commission for Democracy through Law Report on noncitizens and minority rights, 2007
• The rights of non-citizens, UN OHCHR, 2006
• http://www.illegalaliennewsupdate.com[[he:שוהה בלתי חוקי]