New edition of Ready for the Interview

now shipping!

As you know, the N-400 application for citizenship was substantially revised in April of this year. I've just completed a new edition of Ready for the Interview ("the red book") to help teachers cope with the new vocabulary and other changes we're confronting as we prepare students for their interviews. The new edition has gone to press and orders will be going out now.

What’s new in the 2024 edition of Ready for the Interview?

The book is based on the questions our students encounter on the application for citizenship (N-400), and which subsequently form the basis of every citizenship interview. In the new N-400, some questions were added, combined together, or rephrased, while other were eliminated. In addition, whole new sections have been added, the sequence of the sections has changed, and the instructions for filling it out are different. All of this is reflected in the 2024 edition of Ready for the Interview.

  • Ready for the Interview highlights difficult vocabulary and explains it via examples throughout the text, as well as the “Words to remember” section at the back. Some of the vocabulary in the previous edition has been removed, and new vocabulary is introduced and explained. In some instances, there are new images to support comprehension of these tricky new vocabulary words.
  • The order of the N-400 sections has changed, new sections have been added, and some sections have been deleted, so the chapters in Ready for the Interview have changed to reflect this. The new edition also flags sections where the new instructions may be confusing (for example, about which questions need to be filled out and which ones a particular applicant should skip).
  • Applicants now have the option of filing their applications online instead of on paper. This option is explained and shown visually in the new edition, and at the end of the book, there is a helpful comparison of the paper format versus the online interface.
  • USCIS has incorporated a new section in the N-400 for applicants to request that new social security cards be issued to them once they are naturalized. This is explained in the new edition.
  • Although fee waivers were explained in the previous edition, USCIS has established a separate option for requesting a fee reduction and has incorporated it into the N-400. This new option is explained in the 2024 Ready for the Interview edition, and it provides a simple way for students to check whether they qualify for fee reductions/fee waivers.
  • There is a new page about “small talk”—the informal conversation that examiners often engage an applicant in before starting an official interview.

I have also revised the "Tricky Vocabulary" handout which appears with the free resources at the bottom left of the purchase page for Ready for the Interview. The new handout is currently in the production process and will be posted very soon.

Posted: to Citizenship News on Thu, Oct 24, 2024
Updated: Thu, Nov 14, 2024