DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38063.v1
title: The New Immigrant Survey Round 1 (NIS-2003-1), United States, 2003-2004 [Restricted-Use Version 2]
title: Version 1

description: The New Immigrant Survey (NIS) is a nationally representative, multi-cohort, longitudinal study of new legal immigrants to the United States and their children. The sampling frame is based on the electronic administrative records compiled for new legal permanent residents (LPRs) by the U.S. government (via, formerly, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and now its successor agencies, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS)). The geographic sampling design takes advantage of the natural clustering of immigrants. It includes all top 85 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and all top 38 counties, plus a random sample of MSAs and counties. The baseline survey (ICPSR 38031) was conducted from June 2003 to June 2004 and yielded data on:

8,573 Adult Sample respondents
810 sponsor-parent of the Sampled Child
4,915 spouses
and 1,072 children aged 8-12.
Interviews were conducted in the respondents' language of choice. Round 2 instruments were designed to track changes from the baseline and also included new questions. As with the Round 1 questionnaire, questions that were used in social-demographic-migration surveys around the world as well as the major U.S. longitudinal surveys were reviewed in order to achieve comparability.
description: The purpose of The New Immigrant Survey (NIS) was to obtain a general overview of the population of legal immigrants to the United States. Aims of the study included assessing changes in immigrants' lifestyles, evaluating employment situations and societal assimilations, and examining the education of immigrants and their transition towards permanent citizenship.
description: The New Immigrant Survey (NIS) was a nationally representative, multi-cohort, longitudinal study. Interviews were conducted in the respondents' language of choice. Questions that were used in social-demographic-migration surveys around the world as well as the major U.S. longitudinal surveys were reviewed in order to achieve comparability.
description: The variables in this study contain information pertaining to the respondents' immigration details and geographic identifiers. The immigration details include Immigrant Class of Admission INS codes and nationality. The geographic information includes geographic description of previous and current living situations, along with geographic description of work and schooling.
description: The sampling frame consists of new-arrival immigrants and adjustee immigrants. New-arrival immigrants are those who are arriving in the United States with immigrant documents acquired abroad while adjustee immigrants are already in the United States with a temporary nonimmigrant visa and adjust to lawful permanent residence. The Adult and Proxy Child Samples are defined in terms of immigration category and age. The Adult Sample covers all immigrants who are 18 years of age or older at admission to the Lawful Permanent Residence (LPR) program. The Proxy Child Sample covers immigrants with child-of-U.S.-citizen visas who are under 18 years of age and adopted orphans under five years of age. The sampling frame is based on the electronic administrative records compiled for new legal permanent residents (LPRs) by the U.S. government (via, formerly, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and now its successor agencies, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS)). The first full cohort (NIS-2003-1) was sampled during May through November of 2003, yielding data on:

8,573 Adult Sample respondents
810 sponsor-parent of the Sampled Child
4,915 spouses
and 1,072 children aged 8-12.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Adult Sample INS Variables Data
DS2: Proxy Child Sample INS Variables Data
DS3: Adult Sample Geographic Identifiers Data
DS4: Proxy Child Sample Geographic Identifiers Data
DS5: Spouse Sample Geographic Identifiers Data
description: Legal immigrants to the United States and their families. Smallest Geographic Unit: City
description: face-to-face interviewVersion 1 of The New Immigrant Survey Round 1 study (ICPSR 38031) contains variables pertaining to respondents' demographics. The Version 2 study contains information pertaining to the respondents' immigration details and geographic identifiers.