Description:
It's rarely easy to deal with federal bureaucracy, but few tasks are as complicated and fraught with potentially irreparable errors as attempting to immigrate to the United States. If immigrating isn't a matter of life or death, that is, if you have a few days or weeks to do the research that will significantly improve your chances of getting what you want, Allan Wernick's U.S. Immigration & Citizenship is the place to start. Wernick is a professor, lawyer, and immigration-law expert, and his readable chapters will tell you what might help, or hurt, your application, how to obtain and extend a visa, and what you have to gain, or lose, by applying for citizenship. It also addresses the needs of employers, telling them how to stay out of trouble with the law, and highlights new Web pages that cover the ever-changing rules and links concerning immigration. Section I is all about getting a green card. It discusses family-based visas and permanent residence based on work, talent, or investment, as well as lottery green cards, whether lawyers help your lottery chances, and what INS risks might be involved in entering the lottery. Wernick further covers potential obstacles to permanent residence, and how best to go about the immigrant-visa application process. Section II takes the next step, launching into naturalization and citizenship. Wernick writes about the risks of pursuing naturalization, its requirements (physical presence, good moral character, English competence, etc.), and how to go about applying. Other sections go into nonimmigrant visas (student visas, temporary professional workers', and the like), refugee and asylum rules, and employer sanctions, with attention to both employer obligations and employee rights. The guide is full of case histories that help illustrate and personalize the rules, and it's enhanced with practical appendices loaded with resource agencies, state-by-state addresses, Web sites, and e-mail addresses, plus a list of 100 questions posed by INS naturalization examiners, and the answers they expect. --Stephanie Gold
| 
