Alien (law)
a person who comes from or belongs to a different country or an outsider to a specific community or group, which emphasizes non-citizenship or not being native to the jurisdiction under consideration
In law, an alien is a foreign-born resident who has not been naturalized and is still a citizen or subject of a foreign country, although definitions and terminology differ across legal systems.
Lexicology
The term "alien" is derived from the Latin alienus. The Latin later came to mean a stranger, a foreigner, or someone not related by blood. Similar terms to "alien" in this context include foreigner and lander.
Categories
Different countries around the world use varying terms for foreign nationals, also called non-citizens. Those who have relinquished their citizenship and/or nationality may or not be an alien in the host country. The following are general categories:
permanent resident — any immigrant who has been lawfully admitted into a nation and granted the legal right to remain therein as a permanent resident, including registered refugees, in accord with the nation's immigration laws.
temporary resident — any foreign national who has been lawfully granted permission by the government to drive, fly, travel, lodge, reside, study or work for a specific number of years and then apply for an extension or leave the country before such permission expires.
nonresident alien — any foreign national, such as a travel visa holder or a foreign tourist, who is lawfully within a nation but whose legal domicile is in another nation.
alien enemy (or enemy alien) — any foreign national of any country that is at war with the host country.
The public source identifies “Alien (law)” as a person who comes from or belongs to a different country or an outsider to a specific community or group, which emphasizes non-citizenship or not being native to the jurisdiction under consideration. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alien, person and comes.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Alien (law)”, the useful work is to connect “a person who comes from or belongs to a different country or an outsider to a specific community or group, which emphasizes non-citizenship or not being native to the jurisdiction under consideration” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q473741. The Library of Congress control number is sh85003545. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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This entry incorporates text from “Alien (law)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.