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New Beginnings

Happy Holidays from our EIIC Creatives Artists
Join us on January 6, 2024 for a free visual and musical arts celebration of the New Year.

New Beginnings

Music and Art Exhibition

Saturday, January 6th, 2024, from 4-6pm

Le Chéile 839 West 181st Street New York, NY 10033

Free admission with RSVP https://bit.ly/Jan6eiic

Happy Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection for all our blessings. Hope that you are surrounded with the love of your dear ones on this festive season.

If you or a family member are currently enrolled in Medicaid, Child Health Plus, or the Essential Plan, it’s important to stay up to date with renewals. NY State of Health will be sending notices to inform you of when it’s time to renew your health insurance.

If you need assistance with your renewal:

•          Contact us at: 718-478-5502, ext. 103 or at 914-348-1175

•          Email us at: juan@eiic.org

•          Call NY State of Health at 1-855-355-5777, or log into your account at nystateofhealth.ny.gov.

For more information, visit:

https://info.nystateofhealth.ny.gov/frequently-asked-questions-about-renewals?utm_campaign=HomePage&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=socialmedia

EIIC Awarded USCIS Citizenship Integration Grant

At the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, we provide lawful permanent residents with the support they need to be successful on their path to citizenship. It is a privilege to work with these aspiring citizens, and we now continue to have an even greater ability to assist those in our local community through another generous grant from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

We are one of 65 organizations across the country to receive this competitive grant award. The funding we will receive, totaling $450,000, to continue to support and enhance our citizenship preparation services for the next two years. This funding does not include almost $50,000 in kind volunteer hours dedicated from NY Cares volunteers to support the citizenship instruction program. We are very grateful for an increase in funding for the first time in ten years and for the support of our elected officials, including Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Meng.

The Center has always placed great emphasis on American citizenship and civic engagement and we see empowerment, integration and participation as vital factors in the well-being of the community we serve. We are very grateful and proud to have received funding over the past twelve years and for the next two years from the USCIS Office of Citizenship to provide legal assistance and instruction to those seeking to become U.S. citizens. The additional funding will allow us to continue to provide our educational and legal assistance to 880 needy lawful permanent residents through multi-level classes led by trained instructors and direct legal assistance in understanding and filing for naturalization.

This is the fifteenth year USCIS has awarded grants to expand the availability of high-quality citizenship preparation services for lawful permanent residents across the nation. There are over 370,000 lawful permanent residents living in the greater New York City metropolitan area currently eligible to naturalize and more than 70,000 living in Queens alone. With this USCIS grant, our efforts will have a larger impact in helping some of our fellow community members achieve their dream of U.S. citizenship. By helping immigrants improve their English language skills and learn about our country’s history and government, and the rights and responsibilities that define citizenship, we will help them civically integrate – and that’s good for us all.

Below: The EIIC recently hosted a Citizenship Classes Orientation in Queens, at which  NYS Assemblymember Steven Raga was in attendance. Some students of the Citizenship program spoke, by way of encouragement to new students, about their successes in obtaining U.S. citizenship thanks to the preparation provided by EIIC. We thank Assemblymember Raga for attending this event and we thank Representative Meng for her gracious support of our work.

EIIC Drector of Immigation Legal Services John Stahl, Esq., joins NYS Assemblymember Steve Raga at EIIC’s recent Citizenship Program Orientation night in Queens. Below, Citizenship Program student Manuel Lema shares some encouraging words with the new students, based on his experience of having obtained U.S. Citizenship.

Should you have friends or family in need of support related to the citizenship process, please let us know in a reply to this email and we will follow up!  For questions about our citizenship educational program or to enroll, email coordinator@eiic.org.

Diversity Visa Program (DV-2025) Entry Period Opens October 4th

The annual diversity visa lottery registration period opens once again on October 4th until November 7th for those who are eligible to apply for a green card to reside permanently in the United States. Only entries submitted during this period will be accepted and considered for selection in the lottery. Applications will only be accepted online via the U.S. Department of State official website at dvprogram.state.gov.

In recent years there has been an increase in online scams promising green cards or quicker service for a fee.  EIIC’s Immigration Attorney and Director of Immigration Legal Services, John A. Stahl, Esq., urges those interested in applying to note that “[t]here is still no fee to apply and there is only one official website to register.” He advises individuals to ignore any email offers to help complete or expedite the application process.

Please call either of our offices if you need assistance with your application. Alternatively, if you have questions, please note that we will be hosting a livestream presentation on Facebook Live on Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 4pm at https://www.facebook.com/EIICNY/.

We will also be collaborating on other presentations over the next few weeks. More details to follow.

The immigration legal services staff at the Center is once again appealing to potential applicants to apply early this year, cautioning that the official DV Lottery website can get frozen closer to the deadline of noon on Tuesday, November 7th.

If you are a member of a local group or organization and would like our staff to speak to your group on the DV Lottery in October or on any immigration topic at a future meeting, please contact John A. Stahl, Esq., Director of Immigration Legal Services and Immigration Attorney at 718-478-5502, extension 201.

Check our website and social media for additional information and upcoming public meeting dates.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EIICNY/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EIIC1

Instagram: @eiicny

EIIC Immigration legal services staff has helped many, who are currently in the United States and are still in status, to apply on the visa waiver program or on a temporary work visa. “The green card lottery is a yearly opportunity for qualified applicants who are legally in the United States or overseas to attain permanent resident status here with no strings attached,” according to EIIC’s Immigration Legal Services Director, John A. Stahl.

This year 55,000 green cards will be available through a lottery system to individuals coming from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The State Department’s Kentucky Consular Center holds the annual lottery and chooses winners randomly from about 22 million qualified entries. Over 100,000 entries are selected and given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence. If permanent residence is granted, then the individual, their spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 will be authorized to live and work permanently in the United States. “The DV Lottery is one of the few ways that exist to apply for a green card. Despite the low allocation of green cards to Ireland, it is worth the effort, if you really do want a long-term option to stay legally in America,” stated Siobhan Dennehy, EIIC’s Executive Director. “I equate the odds to playing the New York State Lottery as there are around 8 million applications from all over the world annually. Although you apply for the green card in 2023, you will not be notified about your application until 2024 and you won’t actually receive the green card itself until 2025, that’s why they call it the DV-2025 lottery, which can be confusing.”

Only natives of certain countries are eligible to apply for the green card lottery. Those born in the following countries are NOT eligible to apply for the DV-2025 lottery because a total of more than 50,000 immigrants came from these countries to the U.S. in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela and Vietnam. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible. An applicant may, however, claim the country of birth of their spouse, if eligible, or of either parent if they were born in a country of which neither of their parents was a native or a resident at the time of their birth.

For the first time ever, individuals born in the United Kingdom are eligible to enter the lottery this year.

All applicants also must have a high school diploma or the equivalent, defined in the United States as the successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education or they must have two years of work experience within the last five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform. Entries for the DV-2025 diversity visa lottery must be submitted electronically from noon EDT on Wednesday, October 4, 2023 through noon EST on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. Applicants may access the electronic diversity visa entry form at dvprogram.state.gov only during the registration period beginning October 4th. Paper entries will not be accepted. All entries by an applicant will be disqualified if more than one entry for the applicant is received, regardless of who submitted the entry. Applicants may prepare and submit their own entries, or have someone submit the entry for them. The Department of State will issue DV lottery entrants an electronic confirmation number and notice upon receipt of a correctly completed Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form.

Applicants must also attach separate digital photographs of themselves, their spouses and unmarried children less than 21 years of age (except spouses or children who are already permanent residents or U.S. citizens). The photographs must be in the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format and meet specific resolutions (minimum 600 pixels high by 600 pixels wide), color depths (24-bit color) and kilobytes (maximum 240 KB) requirements. If a photograph print is scanned, the print must be two inches square and be scanned at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) and with specific color depths. The photograph must be taken within the last six months and no glasses may be worn in the photo. If the digital image does not conform to the specifications, the application will be automatically disqualified.

Applicants will be selected at random by computer from among all qualified entries. All applicants will be required to go back to the website to find out whether their entry has been selected in the DV-2025 lottery or to find out they have not been selected. Selectees will only be notified of their selection through the “entry status check” available starting May 4, 2024 at the website dvprogram.state.gov. The online entry status check will be the ONLY means by which selectees will be notified of their selection for DV-2025. The Kentucky Consular Center will not be mailing out notification letters. Those selected in the random drawing are not notified of their selection by e-mail. Those individuals not selected will be notified of their non-selection through the web-based “entry status check.”

No fee is charged to enter the annual DV program. The U.S. Government employs no outside consultants or private services to operate the DV program. Any intermediaries or others who offer assistance to prepare submissions for applicants do so without the authority or consent of the U.S. Government. Use of any outside intermediary or assistance to prepare a DV entry is entirely at the applicant’s discretion. A qualified entry submitted electronically directly by an applicant has an equal chance of being selected by the computer at the Kentucky Consular Center as does an entry submitted electronically through a paid intermediary who completes the entry for the applicant.

The current immigration laws carry heavy penalties for visa overstays. Those who have overstayed their visa by 6 months, face a 3 year bar upon their departure from the United States, if they have overstayed for one year or more, they are subject to a 10 year bar. Successful lottery applicants who are undocumented in the US must be processed for a visa at a US Consulate abroad under existing immigration laws. Departing the US will trigger the 3 or 10 year bars making them ineligible for a visa. Undocumented lottery winners with a relative petition or an employer labor certification pending before April 30, 2001, may be eligible to be interviewed in the United States under Section 245(i), provided they have not already triggered the 3/10 year bars by leaving the US.

Inquiries may be made to the EIIC at their Woodside, Queens’s office at (718) 478-5502 or at their Woodlawn, Bronx office at (718) 324-3039, on the EIIC website at www.eiic.org, Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/EIICNY/, on Twitter @EIIC1 and Instagram at @eiicny.

The EIIC is a member of the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers, for further information about Irish centers in the US providing free assistance with DV lottery applications please refer to their website at www.ciic.usa-org

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