BY RICARDO VAZQUEZ
© 1999 LatinoLink

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In addition to commercial sites, INS spokesperson Sharon Rummery said her department's own webpage can help applicants find useful information. The site has been recently revamped, and according to INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, it represents "a quantum leap in our ability to provide critical immigration information that our customers need in a user-friendly, timely manner."

Call him a nitpicker, but attorney Carl Shusterman said although the INS has clearly improved its site, it still lags behind in certain critical areas. "They still have 54 forms that one can download. I have more than 100.

Another problem is they don't post the waiting times for the cases that are being processed," said Shusterman, who added that his newsletter alone has more than 27,000 subscribers, among them news reporters and representatives from congressional offices.

In the end, only a small percentage of the people who come to the site actually need to hire a firm to represent them in their immigration cases, explained Visalaw's Siskind. "There are a lot of immigration procedures for which one doesn't need a lawyer," he stressed. But "clients want to be well informed and our goal is to provide as much information as possible."

This made the difference for Garcia. "I got such good information from Visalaw that...when I actually needed an immigration lawyer, I went back to them."

Not all sites that provide information on immigration issues are law firms. As immigrants, Ellie Azulay and her husband Walter Marin created U.S.-Immigration "hoping to help others who are going through the same experiences."

Azulay describes the site as a "virtual immigration bookstore." She concurred that the number of Latinos on-line has been increasing steadily. And as far as her website, the overwhelming majority of Latino visitors are "interested in buying courses that prepare them for the citizenship exam," she said.

Examples like these show how technology is revolutionalizing the immigration process. For the tech-savvy, getting to the United States may just be a few clicks away.

Last change: October 6, 1999