Table 3.

Immigration Characteristics of Main Sampled Immigrants and Their Spouses Interviewed in the NIS-2003 Adult Sample

Immigration Characteristic	Main Adult	Spouse	Total
Principal	7,615 (88.6%)	714 (15.3%)	8,329
Nonprincipal	958 (11.4%)	NA	958
Native-born U.S. citizen sponsor of spouse	NA	522 (22.3%)	522
Other native-born U.S. citizen	NA	39 (.58%)	39
Foreign-born U.S. citizen sponsor of spouse	NA	566 (24.7%)	566
Other foreign-born U.S. citizen	NA	43 (.72%)	43
Previous immigrant LPR sponsor of spouse	NA	133 (2.84%)	133
Foreign-born spouse of principal who can have accompanying spouse	NA	1,610 (18.3%)	1,610
Foreign-born spouse of principal who cannot have accompanying spouse	NA	707 (15.3%)	707
Total	8,573	4,334	12,907

Notes: Percentages in Main Adult and Spouse columns are based on design weights for main sampled immigrants. The principal is the person who qualifies for the immigrant visa; in some visa categories, visas are also available for the accompanying spouses of principals. Spouses who are principals (n = 714) are married to nonprincipal main sampled immigrants (n = 958); in the NIS all nonprincipal main sampled immigrants are accompanying spouses of principals. Foreign-born spouses of principals who can have accompanying spouses may be accompanying spouses, contemporaneous legal immigrants (e.g., both with employment principal visas), previous immigrants, or unauthorized immigrants. Foreign-born spouses of principals who cannot have accompanying spouses may be contemporaneous legal immigrants (e.g., with visas as parents of U.S. citizens), previous immigrants, or unauthorized immigrants. Spouses of overseas Main Adult respondents were not interviewed; the overseas respondents were 268 principals and 53 nonprincipals (see section 2.4). Thus, for example, the 714 Spouse principals are married to persons from among the 905 non-overseas subset of the 958 Main Adult nonprincipals.