Lawfully present aliens for purposes of applying for Social Security benefits.
8 C.F.R. § 1.3
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01(a) Definition of the term an “alien who is lawfully present in the United States.” For the purposes of 8 U.S.C. 1611(b)(2) only, an “alien who is lawfully present in the United States” means:
(1) A qualified alien as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1641(b);
(2) An alien who has been inspected and admitted to the United States and who has not violated the terms of the status under which he or she was admitted or to which he or she has changed after admission;
(3) An alien who has been paroled into the United States pursuant to section 212(d)(5) of the Act for less than 1 year, except:
(i) Aliens paroled for deferred inspection or pending removal proceedings under section 240 of the Act; and
(ii) Aliens paroled into the United States for prosecution pursuant to 8 CFR 212.5(b)(3);
(4) An alien who belongs to one of the following classes of aliens permitted to remain in the United States because DHS has decided for humanitarian or other public policy reasons not to initiate removal proceedings or enforce departure:
(i) Aliens currently in temporary resident status pursuant to section 210 or 245A of the Act;
(ii) Aliens currently under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) pursuant to section 244 of the Act;
(iii) Cuban-Haitian entrants, as defined in section 202(b) of Pub. L. 99-603, as amended;
(iv) Family Unity beneficiaries pursuant to section 301 of Pub. L. 101-649, as amended;
(v) Aliens currently under Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) pursuant to a decision made by the President;
(vi) Aliens currently in deferred action status;
(vii) Aliens who are the spouse or child of a United States citizen whose visa petition has been approved and who have a pending application for adjustment of status;
(5) Applicants for asylum under section 208(a) of the Act and applicants for withholding of removal under section 241(b)(3) of the Act or under the Convention Against Torture who have been granted employment authorization, and such applicants under the age of 14 who have had an application pending for at least 180 days.
(b) Non-issuance of a Notice to Appear and non-enforcement of deportation, exclusion, or removal orders. An alien may not be deemed to be lawfully present solely on the basis of DHS's decision not to, or failure to:
(1) Issue a Notice to Appear; or
(2) Enforce an outstanding order of deportation, exclusion or removal.
Source: eCFRURL: https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2024-07-01/title-8.xmlFetched: 7/26/2026