Introduction

If you've already tried to research how to immigrate to the United States, you may have come away more confused than enlightened. We've heard immigrants ask frustrated questions like, "Are they trying to punish me for doing things legally?" or "I can't tell whether they want to let me in, or keep me out!"

The trouble is, the U.S. immigration system is a little like a mythical creature with two heads. One head is smiling, and granting people the right to live or work in the United States, temporarily or permanently -- especially people who:

• will pump money into the U.S. economy (such as tourists, students, and investors)
• can fill gaps in the U.S. workforce (mostly skilled workers)
• are joining up with close family members who are already U.S. citizens or permanent residents, or
• need protection from persecution or other humanitarian crises.

This creature's other head wears a frown. It is afraid of the United States being overrun by huge numbers of immigrants, and so it tries to keep out anyone who:

• doesn't fit the narrow eligibility categories set forth in the U.S. immigration laws
• has a criminal record
• is a threat to U.S. ideology or national security
• has spent a long time in the U.S. illegally or committed other immigration violations
• is attempting fraud in order to immigrate, or
• will not earn enough money to stay off government assistance.

Not surprisingly, these two heads don't always work together very well. You may find that, even when you know you have a right to visit, live, or work in the United States, and you're trying your best to fill out the applications and complete your case properly, you feel as if you're being treated like a criminal. The frowning head doesn't care. It views you as just another number, and as no great loss if your application fails -- or is, literally, lost in the files of thousands of other applications.

Have you heard people say that a U.S. citizen could simply invite a friend from overseas to live here? Those days are gone. Now, every immigrant has to find a legal category that he or she fits within, deal with demanding application forms and procedures, and pass security and other checks.

Almost everyone should at least attend a consultation with an experienced immigration attorney before submitting an application. Unless your case presents no complications whatsoever, it's best to have an attorney confirm that you haven't overlooked anything. However, by preparing yourself with the information in this book, you can save money and make sure you're using a good attorney for the right services.

Example: An American woman was engaged to a man from Mexico, and figured, since she herself had been to law school, that she didn't need an attorney's help. She read that a foreign-born person who was in the U.S. on a tourist visa could get married and then apply for a green card within the United States. Unfortunately, what she didn't realize was that this possibility only works for people who decide to get married after entering the United States. Applying for a tourist visa with the idea of getting married and getting a green card amounts to visa fraud, and can ruin a person's chances of immigrating. Are you already confused by this story? That's all right, the U.S. immigration system doesn't always make a lot of sense. This is why an attorney's help is often needed -- to get you through legal hoops that you'd never imagined existed.

Roadmap to U.S. Immigration

This book will cover a lot of territory -- almost all of U.S. immigration law, including your basic rights, strategies, and the procedures for getting where you need to go. Any time you cover this much ground, it helps to have a road map -- particularly so you'll know which subjects or chapters you can skip entirely.

Take a look at the imaginary map below, then read the following subsections to orient you to the main topics on the map.

[Roadmap to U.S. Immigration Image] omitted for online sample chapter.

As you can see, the first stop along the way is The Inadmissibility Gate. This gate represents a legal problem that can stop your path to a visa or green card before you've even started. If you have, for example, committed certain crimes, been infected with certain contagious diseases, appear likely to need welfare or government assistance, violated U.S. immigration laws, or you match another description on the U.S. government's list of concerns, you are considered "inadmissible." That means you won't be allowed any type of U.S. visa or green card, except under special circumstances or with legal forgiveness called a waiver. This gate gets closed on a lot of people who lived in the U.S. illegally for more than six months, which creates either a three-year or ten-year bar to immigrating. Even if you think you haven't done anything wrong, please read Chapter 3 for more on the problem of inadmissibility.

If you get past the inadmissibility gate, the next stop along your theoretical journey is The Eligibility Bridge. This is where you must answer the question, "What type of visa or green card are you eligible for?" Answering this question will involve some research on your part. You might already know the answer -- for example, if you've just married a U.S. citizen, it's pretty obvious that you want to apply for a green card on this basis, and should read the appropriate chapter of this book (Chapter 7). Or, if your main goal is to attend college in the United States, then you probably know that you need a student visa, and can proceed straight to the chapter covering that topic (Chapter 22).

If you don't already know you're eligible for a certain type of visa or green card, however, then start by reading Section B, below, which reviews the possibilities for spending time in the U.S. and directs you to the appropriate chapters for follow-up. You'll see that this book covers more than just permanent green cards -- we know that not everyone will either want, or be eligible to receive, the right to live in the United States their whole life. However, there are many useful ways to stay in the United States temporarily, for example on a student or employment-based visa. And even if you don't fit into one of the usual categories, there may be an emergency or other special category that helps you.

Not many people will travel down the Citizen Parents or Grandparents Side Road. It's for the lucky few who, after doing a little research, realize that they are already U.S. citizens because their parents or grandparents had U.S. citizenship. Okay, we admit that this is rare. Most people would not be picking up a book on immigration if they were already U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, a few people are surprised to find that, because their parents or grandparents were either born in the U.S. or became U.S. citizens later, they are already U.S. citizens themselves -- in which case they can put this book back down and go get a U.S. passport. See Chapter 2 for a full discussion of who can claim U.S. citizenship through parents or grandparents.

The next stop along your journey is the Application Process Bog. We added this because, even after you realize that you match the eligibility requirements for a U.S. visa or green card, you can't just march into a U.S. immigration office and claim your rights on the spot. The application process involves intensive document collection, form preparation, and generally molding your life around monitoring the handling of your case until you've gotten what you want. Even if you do your part correctly, most visas and green cards take a much longer time to obtain that you would ever imagine -- anywhere from a few months to several years.

Some people never make it through the bog, simply because they failed to adequately prepare their applications or to respond to government follow-up requests on time. Others get bogged down through no fault of their own because the U.S. government loses track of their application. Dealing with bureaucracy and delays is such a large concern that we've devoted a whole chapter of this book to it: Chapter 4. And you should also read Chapter 6, on how to find and work with a high-quality immigration attorney. Attorneys are familiar with the difficulties of the application process, and the good ones will have access to inside phone numbers or email addresses to use when there's a problem.

If you make it this far, then the door to U.S. immigration will be opened to you.

Immigration Eligibility Self-Quiz

Since we don't know who you are, we're going to start with a very broad assumption: that you're looking for any possible way to spend time in the United States, preferably permanently. With that idea in mind, we offer the following quiz to help you find out what type of visa or green card you might be eligible for, and which chapter of this book to read for more information. This quiz will also help introduce you to U.S. immigration law -- it covers almost all the categories for entering or staying legally.

[Immigration Eligibility Self-Quiz] omitted for online sample chapter.

The Typical Application Process

Now let's assume that you are not inadmissible, and that you have what it takes to be eligible for either a permanent green card or a temporary U.S. visa. Although we'll give you more detail about the application processes later in this book, here's a preview. Your main steps will include:

• deciding whether you'll need legal help to complete your application
• if you're applying for a permanent green card, waiting while your U.S. family member or employer fills out what's called a "visa petition," proving either that you are the person's family member or have been offered a job; and then waiting even longer for the U.S. immigration authorities to approve the petition
• if, in the category under which you're applying, only limited numbers of visas or green cards are given out every year, waiting until the people in line ahead of you have received their green cards (which often takes years)
• filling out your own set of application forms, collecting documents, and submitting them to either a U.S. consulate in your home country or to the U.S. immigration authorities
• tracking your application to make sure it doesn't get lost in the system
• attending an interview at a consulate outside of the U.S. or a U.S. immigration office, at which your application is reviewed and you answer questions
• receiving either a visa to enter the U.S., or a green card or other right to stay in the U.S. (unless you are denied, in which case you may want to reapply), and finally
• entering the United States, protecting your status, and working toward the next step, if any (if you received a green card, you may want to work toward U.S. citizenship, the highest and most secure status you can receive).

One issue that will make a big difference in how your application proceeds is whether you are currently living in the United States or in another country. U.S. government offices have been set up to handle U.S. immigration applications both outside the U.S. (at U.S. consulates) and within the United States (at USCIS district offices and service centers). However, not all of these offices handle all types of immigration applications -- you can't just walk into one and expect it to handle yours. See "Which Government Office Will Be Handling Your Immigration Application," above.

What's more, many of the people who would most prefer to file their immigration applications in the United States -- because they have been living here for many years, perhaps illegally -- will find that they are not allowed to do so. We will discuss this at length in Chapter 3.

The short explanation is that, if you either entered the United States illegally (not with a visa or other entry document or right), or you have worked here illegally, you cannot (with a few exceptions), use the services of a USCIS immigration office. Instead, you must leave the U.S. and go to a U.S. consulate to make your visa or green card request. That creates a huge problem for people who have lived illegally in the United States for more than six months after January 1, 1997. Once you leave, you can be prevented from returning for three years if your illegal stay was between six months and one year. If your illegal stay in the U.S. lasted more than one full year, you can be prevented from returning for ten years. Some people can apply for waivers to return earlier, but not everyone can apply for them and the waivers are frequently denied.

In fact, this problem creates a trap for many people who, although they are technically eligible for a green card, can't actually get a green card because they are living in the United States illegally.

Example: Maria crossed the border illegally from Mexico in the year 2002. She married David, a U.S. citizen, in 2007. However, because of Maria's illegal entry, she cannot apply for a green card at a local USCIS office. She would have to go to a U.S. consulate in Mexico to file her green card application -- and then potentially be barred from returning to the U.S. for three or ten years.

Now that you have some idea whether there's a visa or green card that you qualify for, please go on to read either Chapter 2 (if you have parents or grandparents who were U.S. citizens) or Chapter 3, concerning inadmissibility. Then proceed straight to the chapter concerning the visa or green card you're interested in. If, after reading the detailed eligibility requirements, you confirm that you qualify, don't forget to read Chapter 4, with crucial advice on handling the paperwork and dealing with bureaucrats, and Chapter 6, on when and how to find a good lawyer.