EIIC – Page 2 – Emerald Isle Immigration Center

Diversity Visa (DV-2024) Entry Period Opens October 5th

March 13, 2023October 3, 2022

The annual diversity visa lottery registration period opens once again on October 5^th until November 8^th 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 Monday, October 17, 2022 at 5pm at https://www.facebook.com/EIICNY/.

We will also be collaborating with the Queens Public Library on another virtual presentation on Monday, October 24, 2022 at 6pm. See https://www.queenslibrary.org/calendar/virtual-diversity-visa-lottery-dv2024-information-presentation/004589-0922.

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 8^th.

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.

Website: www.eiic.org

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EIIC1

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 6-8 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 2022, you will not be notified about your application until 2023 and you won’t actually receive the green card itself until 2024, that’s why they call it the DV-2024 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-2024 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, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, 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.

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-2024 diversity visa lottery must be submitted electronically from noon EDT on Wednesday, October 5, 2022 through noon EST on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Applicants may access the electronic diversity visa entry form at dvprogram.state.gov only during the registration period beginning October 5th. 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-2024 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 6, 2023 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-2024. 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/ and on Twitter @EIIC1.

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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Update: Birth Information and Tracing Process

January 31, 2023September 22, 2022

Information and tracing services are going to open on Monday 3 October 2022. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has established a new website, https://www.birthinfo.ie/ where all of the key information on the legislation and how affected persons can avail of information and tracing can be found.

Information and tracing services are going to open on Monday 3 October 2022.

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, has today signed the Order providing for Birth Information and Tracing Services under the new Birth Information and Tracing Act to be available from 3 October.

The Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 was signed into law by President Higgins on 30 June. Minister O’Gorman commenced the first parts of the Act on 1 July with the establishment of the Contact Preference Register and the launch of the Public Information Campaign. The Act provides that the Contact Preference Register must be open for a minimum period of 3 months before applications for birth information can be accepted. Having regard to that timeframe, today the Minister signed the Order which will commence information and tracing services from 3 October.

This landmark Act was long awaited by many, and provides a full and clear right of access to birth certificates, birth and early life information, where available, for all persons who were adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration or who otherwise have questions in relation to their origins. It also allows for access to available information by a child of a relevant person where their parent has died, and for access by the next of kin of children who died in an institution.

The Act also creates a statutory tracing service which will open for applications, as well as a range of new bespoke measures to address issues arising for people affected by illegal birth registration. A broad spectrum of counselling and support will also be provided to persons on request. All of these services will be free of charge for applicants. In addition, the Act provides for the safeguarding of important records and is, therefore, a valuable foundational step in the development of the planned National Centre for Research and Remembrance.

In July 2022, a new Contact Preference Register, operated by Adoption Authority of Ireland, opened to applications. This Register empowers people to record their preferences in relation to contact with others and the sharing and receiving of information.

A comprehensive public information campaign also launched in July 2022 to inform people of the important services to be provided for under this new Act. This campaign included the delivery of an information booklet to all households in the country, and had a local, national and international focus.

On 3 October 2022, Information and Tracing services under the Act will open. Applications for records can be made to the Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. A bespoke website, www.birthinfo.ie, has been established for persons seeking to make an application or seeking further information.

Speaking about the Act, the Minister said:

“This Act finally and conclusively addresses the wrongful denial of people’s identity rights over many decades in this State. We have finally found a way to provide a clear right for each person to full and unredacted access to all of his or her information where available. Now, as all affected persons will be able to avail of these new provisions, allowing unfettered access to their birth information, we will be able to see the positive, real world impact of the work we have undertaken on this Act.”

Source: https://www.birthinfo.ie/updates/information-and-tracing-services-under-the-birth-information-and-tracing-act-to-open-from-3-october