Okuzeka
Immigration & Visas vocabulary · Migration Basics

Immigration

Meaning in immigration & visas, with examples

/ˌɪmɪˈɡreɪʃən/nounCore term

In immigration & visas, immigration means: The act of coming to live in a foreign country, and also the system of laws, offices and checks that controls who may enter and stay.

In Turkish: göç, göçmenlik, göç idaresi

How it is used

Used in many compounds: immigration rules, immigration status, immigration officer, immigration lawyer. At airports, "going through immigration" means passing the passport check. Government departments are often named after it, such as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Example sentences

  1. It took us about forty minutes to get through immigration at Heathrow.

  2. The company's HR team handles all immigration paperwork for new hires from abroad.

Common collocations

  • immigration rules
  • immigration status
  • go through immigration
  • immigration authorities
  • immigration paperwork
  • immigrantA person who has come to live permanently or for a long time in a country that is not their country of birth.
  • emigrateTo leave your own country in order to live permanently in another one.
  • migrantA person who moves from one place to another, inside a country or across borders, usually to find work or better living conditions.
  • immigration statusYour legal position in a country as a non-citizen, which decides how long you can stay and whether you can work, study or use public services.
  • immigration officerA government official who checks travellers' documents at the border and decides, or helps decide, whether they may enter or stay.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Migration Basics

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not legal advice.