Immigration Goes Online

Thousands of immigrants who need to file papers related to immigration status, green cards, and resident cards no longer have to stand in line for hours on end. The immigration office now has a new system called Info Pass. Applicants simply schedule a time and a date to meet with an immigration officer using Info Pass. They don’t even have to go to the immigration office. Info Pass is a website that they can access on their home computer or a library computer.

To beat the crowds, immigrants in Los Angeles used to get in line the night before. They would start lining up outside the building at 6:00 p.m. and spend the night in the cold or, occasionally, in the rain. By the following morning, there might be 200 people in line. This, of course, was an unpleasant surprise to people who thought they were early birds by arriving at 7:00 a.m. Sometimes people would sell their place in line to others for $50 or more.

Where there are lines, there are vendors. No one had to worry about going hungry in line because of the variety of hot and cold food and drinks being sold all night long. Occasionally the police received reports about people being pickpocketed while waiting in the overnight lines. But such reports were rare. Many immigrants prefer not to get involved with police for fear of being sent back to their native country.

With the new system, people with appointments are in and out of the building within an hour. Applicants show up 15 minutes before their appointment time. Things are so efficient now that about 120 applicants per hour can be processed through the immigration office. Before Info Pass, it was about 40 people an hour.

 

Remember vocabulary

appointment	n.	встреча
efficient	adj.	эффективный
hungry	adj.	голодный
immigrant	n.	иммигрант
immigration	n.	иммиграция
occasionally	adv.	случайно
process	v.	обрабатывать
rare	adj.	редкий
receive	n.	получать
status	n.	статус (состояние)
vendor	n.	продавец
on end

 

Answer the questions

Will thousands of immigrants be relieved to hear about the new system?
Do immigrants need to file papers?
Do immigrants get green cards if they just stand in line?
Does the immigration system have a new office?
Can immigrants use a computer to make an appointment?
Is Info Pass also the name of a website?
Did immigrants starve while they stood in line overnight?
Did immigrants stand outside in rainy weather sometimes?
Were the early birds unpleasantly surprised?
Does the new system waste time?
Who need to file papers?
What do they need to file?
What is the immigration office’s new system called?
How can immigrants access Info Pass?
What did immigrants use to do to beat the crowds?
What would immigrants do at 6:00 p.m.?
How much would people sell their place in line for?
Wherever there are lines, who appear?
What did people NOT have to worry about while in line?
Before Info Pass, how many people were processed an hour?
Thousands of immigrants need to file papers. (How many)

Ask questions

Immigrants need to file papers. (What)
Info Pass is a new system that the immigration office has. (What)
Immigrants have to stand in line for hours. (How long)
People have to stand in line. (What)
It was an unpleasant surprise. (What kind)
People would sell their place in line. (What)
No one had to worry about going hungry. (Who)
Many immigrants are afraid of being sent back to their native country. (What)
Applicants show up 15 minutes early. (When)