America: A Guide for New Immigrants

Welcome.

This is a work-in-progress draft of a practical guide for people who are new to life in the United States.

The book is focuses on:

everyday systems you are expected to understand (but nobody explains),
legal and “gray-area” realities,
mistakes immigrants commonly make,
and how things actually work in practice.

This is a draft — and feedback is welcome

You are reading a pre-publication version.

If something is:

unclear,
incorrect,
missing,
outdated,
or feels very different from your lived experience,

please leave feedback using the annotation tools on the page.

Short notes, corrections, and pointers are perfect.
Long personal stories are also welcome, but may be edited for length and privacy.

How to read

You can start reading here:

👉 Chapter 1!

(Use the table of contents on the left to navigate.)

How to Leave Feedback on This Book

This draft supports inline annotations directly on the page through Hypothes.is feedback system.

No browser extensions are required.

When you'll try to leave feedback for the first time, you'll be asked to sign up at hypothes.is site, and then after signin-in there, you could join the private group of reivewers. It is by-invite-only. You either received the invitation link from the author, or you could request a link.

Step 1: Leave feedback for the entire page, or Highlight text first

Select any sentence or paragraph you want to comment on, or skip that step if you're suggesting adding something that is missing, or if you're responding to a particular phrase or words, highlifght text first.

Annotate button

Highlight text

Hypothes.is Sign-in pop-up

You will be asked to sign in with your Hypothes.is account.

If you received a private invite link, make sure you have joined the reviewers' group after you're logged in at hypothes.is site. To join the group – use the invite link.

Join private group at Hypothes.is

Step 4: Write your note, and submit

Make sure you're submitting to the america-guide-reviewers group.

What kind of feedback helps most

Things that are unclear or confusing
Statements that feel incorrect or incomplete
Cultural assumptions that don’t match your experience
Missing topics you expected to see

Short notes are perfect. Long stories are welcome too.

All the people suggested something valuable will be mentioned in the "Thank You" section in the final version of the book. Make sure to sign your note with the name you want to be mentioned by. Annotations are only visible to the private group, not to general public.

Thank you for helping improve this guide.