Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-315_q713.pdf
Page Number: 9

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

may  by  regulations  prescribe.”    §1184(a)(1).  The  section 
also provides that a foreign national is “presumed to be an
immigrant until” he establishes “at the time of application 
for admission” that “he is entitled to a nonimmigrant sta-
tus.”  §1184(b).  Section 1184 thus regulates the process for 
admitting foreign nationals as nonimmigrants.  Suppose a 
foreign national wants to be admitted to the United States
as  a  university  student—a  kind  of  nonimmigrant.    He 
should  look  to  §1184  (among  other  provisions)  to  find  out 
what that  will entail—what he must show and what that 
showing will entitle him to.  Why, though, does that matter? 
No one denies that most foreign nationals obtain nonimmi-
grant status through an admission.  So there is naturally a
section in the immigration laws that specifies how that pro-
cess  works.    But  nothing  in  §1184  (or  any  other  section) 
states  that  admission  is  a  prerequisite  of  nonimmigrant 
status—or  otherwise  said,  that  the  former  is  a  necessary 
incident of the latter.  And that is what Sanchez needs.  For 
without such an “indissoluble” link, Reply Brief 2, there is
no reason to view the TPS provision’s conferral of nonimmi-
grant status as also a conferral of admission.

In  fact,  individuals  in  two  immigration  categories  have 
what  Sanchez  says  does  not  exist:  nonimmigrant  status
without  admission.  The  first  category  is  for  “alien  crew-
men”—foreign nationals who serve on board a vessel or air-
craft.  §1101(a)(10).  They  receive  nonimmigrant  status
when their vessel or aircraft “land[s]” in the United States. 
§1101(a)(15)(D)(i).  But still the law provides that they are 
not  “considered  to  have  been  admitted.”    §1101(a)(13)(B).
The second category is for foreign nationals who have been
the victim of a serious crime in the United States and can 
assist  with  the  investigation.    Those  individuals  may  re-
ceive nonimmigrant status even if they entered the country
unlawfully—so  even  if  they  were  not  admitted.    See 
§§1101(a)(15)(U), 1182(d)(14).  And §1255 specifically rec-
ognizes that possibility.  That section makes these so-called