Definiton of "Legal Resident"?

Hello all.

I'm hoping someone here can help clear this up for me

I've been searching around for the definitions of "Legal Resident of the United States" and "Legal Resident of Georgia", however this has been far more difficult than I expected. Either the definition provided is circular ("You are a legal resident of this state if you can prove that you have been a legal resident of the state for the past 12 months"), or that exact wording can't be found at all, even though it a very commonly used phrase.

As background, my wife and I have been in the US, under TN status, since August 2006 (and before that under J1/J2 status since Aug 2005). We have qualified as "Residents for Tax Purposes" by the IRS since the beginning of 2007 as we passed the "Substantial Presence Test" starting that year.

We can certainly prove that we have resided in Georgia (and for that matter, the United States) for the past 12 months (so satisfy that circular 'definition', above), and of course, we are not here illegally... however... does that qualify us as being "Legal Residents"?

What searches I have done for "Legal Resident of the United States" have either returned partial matches that have nothing to do with this, or references to being or becoming a Permanent Resident.

So, is being a "Legal Resident of the United States" synonymous with being a Permanent Resident (ie: having a green card)? If so, is being a "Legal Resident" of a state (in this case Georgia) linked to that, so I must be a Permanent Resident, and have lived in that state for at least 12 months? Or, is "Legal Resident of the United States" different from being a Permanent Resident, and if so, what defines a "Legal Resident of the United States", and what defines a "Legal Resident of <insert state here>"?

Thanks!

(Oh, and btw, sorry if this has been dealt with in other threads. I tried to do a search for "legal resident", but the search engine rejects "resident" as a search term, because it is too common a word here. I see other threads asking what constitutes one as a "Permanent" legal resident, however the instances of the term I am hearing do not include the word "permanent", so I'm looking for a distinction here. Thanks.)

you are a legal resident of the US (and Georgia) as long as your TN status is current and valid. Once it expires, you are no longer a legal resident and must either revew your status, or return to Canada. That being said, TN-status is not "dual intent" which means you cannot immigrate to the US permanently. TN status implies you will go back to Canada at one point in the future.

You are therefore NOT a permanent resident. A permanent resident is a foreign national who holds permanent residency, ie. a green card. You cannot be a permanent resident while holding TN-status. It would defeat the non-immigrant intent of TN status.

Bottom line, yes, you're a legal resident as long as your TN status is valid and current, but no, you're not a permanent resident.

Hope this helps!

It does help, thanks.

It seemed like a fairly common sense thing to me... I'm here legally, and I'm resident here (even according to the IRS), so that seems straight forward that I'm a "legal resident", but having almost every search on the subject direct me to "permanent resident" instead of "legal resident" was bothering me.

I fully understand the rest of what you said, though. I messed up the wording of my question slightly. It was more open to interpretation than I intended. It wasn't my intention to ask whether being a legal resident makes me a permanent resident. My question was actually whether you had to become a Permanent Resident before you could be considered a "Legal Resident". I didn't, personally, think it was the case, but the number of times I was given "permanent resident" results when I was searching for "legal resident" had me worried about it.

So, I'm considered a legal resident (of both Georgia and the US) while my TN remains current and valid, and being a "legal" resident does not require being a "permanent" resident. Got it. Thanks.

A legal resident is someone in the US legally and who resides there, simple as that. "Permanent resident" is a bit more iffy, because they might be talking about an LPR or a resident of a State or whatever, but usually they're talking about an LPR. The main difference being that for tax purposes you could be legally resident in a State but not resident in the US for tax purposes as a non-immigrant alien if you so chose.