How to go about sending money home from the U.S.

There are several ways to transfer money overseas, one common but high cost way of doing so being to use money transfer companies such as MoneyGram or Western Union. While this option is convenient given that walk-ins are welcome and money is transferred fast, typically...

Citizenship tests – how to prepare for one

What do the stripes on the U.S. flag mean? For born American citizens who do not have to take the U.S. Naturalization Test, the answer may just be that they represent the 13 original states. But for immigrants wishing to be naturalized and Chicago-based groups wishing to help...

Indian student finds American schools easier

Sushma R., 19, is a college student in Chicago now, but she recalls being scatterbrained and squirmy as a little girl. That is when she moved in 1996 from Bangalore, India, (also known as Bengalaru) the third most populous city in India, to Illinois with her parents and her...

Confronting the simple task of speaking

Despite his hard-won skills while wandering the Cambodian jungle for weeks, such as scaling trees to navigate and fine-tuning his senses to sniff out water, Ty Tim admits through a thick accent that once he came to America, one of the hardest adjustments was the seemingly...

In a World on the Move, a Tiny Land Strains to Cope

This article ran two summers ago, but left a lasting impact on me as an example of a slice of the world rarely seen: the small, often impoverished countries immigrants leave for America or elsewhere. The number of people at this time who lived in Cape Verde was almost matched...

Tech Recruiting Clashes With Immigration Rules

Sanjay G. Mavinkurve must work from Canada for the Silicon Valley-based Google because his wife does not have a visa. Many of the engineering elites are from overseas, hailing from India, China and Russia among many others. Immigration law in some cases hinders the ability...

The King of Hearts

They call my grandfather the King of Hearts. On Valentine’s Day, they wheeled him over the linoleum floors of the nursing home, his red, fleshy head crowned with plastic jewels, wearing a sash across his body, now weak as empty sails. But his boyish smile is magnetic, and...