In December of 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its Annual Flow Report for nonimmigrant admissions to the United States in 2015 [PDF version].1 The Flow Report includes eight pages of interesting information and charts with various nonimmigrant admissions statistics for 2015, and it is well worth reading in its entirety. In this post, I will highlight the 2015 statistics for nonimmigrant admissions by class of admission and for nonimmigrant admissions by country.
Please see my blog posts about the DHS Annual Flow Reports on naturalizations [see blog] and on refugees and asylees [see blog].
Note
The following statistics cover individuals who were admitted with Forms I-94/I-94W. The document explains that “[t]he I-94 data do not describe all nonimmigrant admissions because certain visitors are not required to fill out I-94 forms.” Notably, many visitors from Mexico and Canada are not required to complete the I-94. Because citizens of Mexico and Canada “make up the vast majority of all nonimmigrant admissions,” this has a significant effect on the following statistics. Furthermore, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began automating the I-94 process for aliens admitted at air and seaports, which explains an apparent jump in admissions beginning in FY-2014 in the following statistics.
Nonimmigrant Admissions (I-94 only) by Class of Admission
Page 4 of the DHS’s Annual Flow Report contains a chart that details nonimmigrant admissions by class of admission, Form I-94 only, for fiscal years 2013 to 2015.
Fiscal Year 2015 saw a total of 76,638,236 nonimmigrants admitted into the United States. This was an increase of just over 1.7 million from 2014 and nearly 15.5 million from 2013.
79.6% of all nonimmigrants admitted were admitted as temporary visitors for pleasure. Of these, 54.4% of all nonimmigrants admitted were admitted as B2 temporary visitors for pleasure, and 23.7% were admitted under the Visa Waiver Program as visitors for pleasure (WV). The remaining 1.6% of nonimmigrants admitted as visitors for pleasure were admitted under the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program.
10.4% of all nonimmigrants admitted were admitted as temporary visitors for business. 6.4% of these were admitted as B1 nonimmigrants, and 4.0% were admitted under the Visa Waiver Program as temporary visitors for business (WB).
Combined, temporary visitors for pleasure and temporary visitors for business made up approximately 90% of all nonimmigrant admissions in FY-2015. Their combined total was approximately 90.1% in 2014 and 89.5% in 2013, meaning that the percentage of all nonimmigrants admitted in 2015 who were temporary visitors for pleasure or business remained steady in FY-2015. Please see our website’s section on Travel Visas to learn more about visiting the United States for business or please [see article].
Temporary workers and families made up 4.9% of all of the nonimmigrant admissions in 2015. The largest individual group in this category were intracompany transferees and their families, who made up 1.2% of the total. 1% of the total were North American Free Trade Agreement professionals (admitted in TN status). We discuss work visas on our website [see article].
2.5% of all of the nonimmigrants admitted were nonimmigrant students and their families (F1 and M1 students). 0.9% of all of the nonimmigrants were transit aliens (C1, C2, and C3); 0.8% were J1 exchange visitors and family, and 0.6% were admitted as diplomats and other representatives and family members thereof.
Nonimmigrant Admissions (I-94 only) by Country of Citizenship
The second and final chart we will look at in this post breaks down the countries of citizenship of the 76,638,236 Form I-94 nonimmigrants who were admitted in FY-2015. The 2015 statistics are listed below:
1. Mexico — 26.6%
2. Canada — 17.5%
3. United Kingdom — 6.5%
4. Japan — 5.2%
5. China — 3.8%
6. Brazil — 3.3%
7. Germany — 3.1%
8. France — 2.7%
9. South Korea — 2.5%
10. India – 2.5%
26.2% of the nonimmigrants come from countries outside of the top 10. An additional 0.1% were listed as “unknown.”
In terms of its share of the total, China saw a significant jump, making up 3.8% of all nonimmigrant admissions in 2015 after only 3.4% in 2014. Japan saw a significant decrease in its share of the total, falling to 5.2% from 5.6%.
Conclusion
The DHS’s Annual Flow Report contains many interesting charts that we did not cover here with statistics regarding the most used ports-of-entry, destination states, and age/gender of nonimmigrants admitted. Please see the full document for more statistics regarding nonimmigrant admissions in FY-2015.
To learn about many of the nonimmigrant categories discussed in this article, please see our website’s sections on Travel Visas [see category], Work Visas [see category], and Student Visas [see category].
