Washington: For the second year running, Indians have overtaken the Chinese in legal immigration to the US and is placed second behind Mexico, according to latest official figures.

While Mexico led the table with 219,380 Green Card holders, Indians accounted for 71,105 of the legal immigrants, followed by the Chinese (61,282) and the Philippines (51,308) and Vietnam (33,627), the figures released by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) under the US Department of Homeland Security, said.

BCIS said it granted legal permanent resident status to 1.063 million during the 2002, nearly the same figures as in 2001.

Despite the impression that Americans wanted the immigration level cut down post September 11, the BCIS figures indicate that there has been no adverse impact on the number of people given the Green Cards.

The report says major categories of immigrants were immediate relatives of US citizens (4,86,748), employment preferences (1,74,968) and refugee adjustments (1,26,084).

PTI