The temporary suspension is extended, and USCIS offices will re-open on June 4th unless the public closures are extended further
To protect our workforce and to help
mitigate the spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in our communities,
effective immediately, USCIS is suspending all routine face-to-face services
with applicants at all of our offices, including all interviews and
naturalization ceremonies.
All USCIS field offices, asylum offices and Application Support Centers (ASCs) will not provide in-person services until at least May 3rd. This includes interviews, naturalization ceremonies and biometric collection appointments. However, we will continue to provide emergency services during this time. If you have an emergency service request, please contact the USCIS Contact Center.
USCIS field offices will send de-scheduling
notices to applicants and petitioners with scheduled appointments impacted by
this closure. We will send de-scheduling notices to naturalization applicants scheduled
for naturalization ceremonies. All applicants will be rescheduled when USCIS
resumes normal operations.
USCIS asylum offices will send interview
cancellation notices and automatically reschedule asylum interviews. When the
interview is rescheduled, asylum applicants will receive a new interview notice
with the new time, date and location of the interview.
USCIS will also automatically reschedule ASC
appointments due to the office closure. Those impacted will receive a new
appointment letter in the mail. Individuals who had InfoPass or other
appointments at the field office must reschedule through the USCIS Contact
Center once field offices are open to the public again. Please
check to see if your field office
has been reopened before reaching out to the USCIS Contact Center.
Additionally, USCIS is
postponing all in-person public engagement and outreach events for the duration
of the office closure. Please contact public.engagement@uscis.dhs.gov if you have an immediate engagement question
during this time.
Education and precautions are the strongest
tools against infection. Get the latest facts by visiting the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 website.
Continue to practice good health habits, refrain from handshakes or hugs as
greetings, and clean hands and surfaces appropriately.
USCIS will provide further updates as the
situation develops and will continue to follow CDC guidance in response to this
situation. Please visit uscis.gov/coronavirus
for updates.
EIIC announces
dates for Public Immigration Information sessions for the community at Bronx and
Queens offices and continues to offer free assistance with green card lottery
applications and general consultations.
The annual diversity visa
lottery registration period opens once again on October 2nd until November 5th 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 www.dvlottery.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., urged 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 about any
immigration matter, please note the dates and places of our upcoming public
meetings from 6pm to 8pm:
Tuesday, October 15, 2019, Queens, 59-26 Woodside
Ave, 2nd Fl, Woodside, NY 11377
Thursday, October 17, 2019, Bronx,
4275 Katonah Avenue, Woodlawn, NY 10470
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 5th. Regretfully, we
will be unable to accommodate last minute walk-ins during the final week of the
DV Lottery registration period.
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 for additional information and upcoming public meeting dates at www.eiic.org
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 8-10 million qualified
entries. About 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 over 8 million applications
from all over the world annually. Although you apply for the green card in 2019,
you will not be notified about your application until 2020 and you won’t
actually receive the green card itself until 2021, that’s why they call it the 2021
DV 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-2021 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 (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its
dependent territories, 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-2021
diversity visa lottery must be submitted electronically from noon EDT on Wednesday,
October 2, 2019 through noon EST on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. Applicants may
access the electronic diversity visa entry form at www.dvlottery.state.gov only during
the registration period beginning October 2nd. 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.
NEW FOR DV-2021:
Applicants must now provide their passport details in the online application.
Specifically, the applicant must indicate the passport number, country of
issuance, and expiration date for the principal entrant’s valid, unexpired
international travel passport. This requirement applies to the principal entrant
only, not to dependents. All applicants must enter valid international travel passport
information unless they are stateless, nationals of a Communist-controlled
country and unable to obtain a passport from the government of the
Communist-controlled country, or the beneficiary of an individual waiver
approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State.
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-2021 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 5, 2020 at the website www.dvlottery.state.gov. The online
entry status check will be the only means by which selectees will be
notified of their selection for DV-2021. 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
or on the EIIC website www.eiic.org.
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
On Tuesday, September 17th, our country celebrated Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. During Constitution Week, from September 17th to September 23rd, more than 34,000 people became citizens during approximately 316 naturalization ceremonies nationwide.
A naturalization ceremony is a joyous and moving event, which all Americans should have the opportunity to witness. Immigrants from countries near and far vow to support and defend the Constitution, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and proudly wave the American flag. For most new citizens, getting to this milestone is the result of hard work and preparation.
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 a generous grant from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
We are one of 41 organizations across the country to receive this competitive grant award. The funding we will receive, totaling $250,000, will help support our citizenship preparation services for the next two years.
The Emerald Isle Immigration Center is a community-based organization with offices in Woodside, Queens and Woodlawn in the Bronx. Over thirty years ago the Emerald Isle Immigration Center was established as a Center to provide day-to-day assistance to newly arrived Irish immigrants. Since those early days a small hard-working staff, dedicated Board and many volunteers spent long hours helping people with important matters; bank accounts, driver’s licenses, housing, medical insurance, education and protection under the law. The Center helped thousands to apply for visas after 1990 and has since assisted many more thousands to follow through and get their green cards and attain US citizenship.
Since 1988, the Center has broadened the scope of its services to include legal assistance, citizenship preparation and adult literacy, social services and employment related services to all immigrants. We assist more than 20,000 individuals each year by providing case assistance, information, and referrals. We offer direct legal representation on immigration and citizenship cases to over 1,000 low-income immigrants and New York City residents annually. Over the past year, we have represented clients from seventy-three countries, including Ireland.
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 eight 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 eleventh year USCIS has awarded grants to expand the availability of high-quality citizenship preparation services for lawful permanent residents across the nation. 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.
With civic integration comes participation – in service groups, school boards, homeowners associations, charitable organizations and many other worthy causes. This citizen-driven community participation is a hallmark of what makes this country great.
We at the Emerald Isle Immigration Center can’t help but feel an extra boost of patriotism this week as we recognize the achievement of those who will naturalize. We are proud to be a part of a process that is so important for our country and for our community and look forward to serving at least 880 more people as they pursue their own dream of becoming U.S. citizens.
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