U.S. Immigration & Citizenship, Revised 2nd Edition: Your Complete Guide [Paperback]

Allan Wernick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 1999

You can become a permanent resident in the United States—or even a citizen! You (and your loved ones) can come here to work, study, or visit. But it won't be easy to qualify; so the more you know about it, the better your chances are.


Here you have the expert advice of a top immigration lawyer at your fingertips. He not only shows you how to take shortcuts to speed up the process but also how you can avoid the traps that can block your way.


Inside you'll find dozens of practical tips and examples, including:

• The easiest way to get and extend your visa
• Things that help—and hurt—your application
• An extensive guide to Internet resources on immigration law
• When you need a lawyer (and when you don't)
• Comprehensive nationwide listing of immigration assistance agencies
• Rules and rights for workers and employers
• Interview questions and answers used by INS examiners
• How much English you need to know
• Samples of the forms you need with step-by-step directions on filling them out
• And much more!


You won't just learn the rules of the immigration "game"—you'll learn how to win with this invaluable, easy-to-read reference guide.


About the Author

Allan Wernick is a nationally recognized attorney and expert on immigration law and procedure. His weekly column on immigration law appears in the New York Daily News.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

Review

It's Getting Harder to Come to the United States.
It's getting harder to stay here.
This book makes it easier.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles; 2nd Rev edition (March 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761517154
• ISBN-13: 978-0761517153
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,074,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, compete and up to date., November 25, 1999

By 

Jerold Kress (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: U.S. Immigration & Citizenship, Revised 2nd Edition: Your Complete Guide (Paperback)

Professor Wernick's latest edition of his popular guide to immigration updates what was already an easy access guide to immigration. All the latest forms are here with case histories and easy-to-understand instructions. This is the only immigration guide you will need.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and Comprehensive, January 4, 2000

By 

Jeff Kaufman - See all my reviews

This review is from: U.S. Immigration & Citizenship, Revised 2nd Edition: Your Complete Guide (Paperback)

I consider this to be the one invaluable book on this subject. Mr. Wernick clearly and concisely makes a very complicated process easy to understand.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars don't know where to start? get this book first, November 14, 2005

By 

m. (New York , NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: U.S. Immigration & Citizenship, Revised 2nd Edition: Your Complete Guide (Paperback)

I'd recommend this book to anyone who's about to file an immigration petition or need a crash course in the complex immigration law. When I worked on my first petition to adjust status, I used multiple dictionaries and needed a legal advice (and had to take the day off to recover). The language of the INS forms is hardly comprehensible to a native speaker and now imagine somebody with only a basic understanding of the language trying to wade through the lingo of the INS forms -- a nightmare. Well, I got smart and bought Wernick's book for my next petitions and I was able to do it all by myself. Now, I am often checking for updates to the book on Prof. Wernick's <a href="http://www.allanwernick.com/index.htm">website </a> and his new <a href="http://wernick.blogspot.com"> blog </a> .