Considering that most projects in cold regions are located in arid or semi-arid regions, this paper comprehensively analyzes the migration mechanism of liquid water and gaseous water in the frozen soil and the model of hydrothermal coupling, in order to provide theoretical support for the study of the migration mechanism of mixed state water in frozen soil, as well as the prevention and control of engineering freezing damage. The research progress of soil water potential theory and vapor transfer-induced freezing theory are summarized, and at the same time, detailed reviews on the traditional moisture migration force theory of frozen soil and migration force theory of water vapor are analyzed. Then, a deeply analysis on the water increasing mechanism in the engineering foundation is conducted, and in addition, this study also summarizes coupled models of the water thermal force and water-vapor, with comparing the characteristics of different numerical model. According to the analysis, the following results can be obtained that considering that the concept of pressure of ice-water phase pressure is not clear, the applicability of Clapeyron equation in the frozen soil needs to be further evaluated. The traditional water migration theory is based on liquid water and ignores the influence of water vapor migration. The water accumulation mechanism of unsaturated soil is well explained by cold condensation and evaporation condensation of water vapor. Meanwhile, the theory of the vapor transfer-induced freezing can well explain the engineering freezing damage caused by the water vapor migration. Finally, the hydro-thermal coupling theory does not fully represent the action of stress field and cannot fully reveal the formation and development process of soil frost heave.