Help Us Help Ecuador!

Join us in collecting money and canned food this weekend to help victims of the April 16 earthquake in Ecuador.  We’ll donate the proceeds to the Ecuadorean consulate and airlines have offered to ship the goods free of charge.

Feel free to come and make your donations on Saturday, April 30, between 10 am and 1 pm at our Queens office, 59-26 Woodside Avenue, Woodside NY 11377

This event coincides with our free shredding event (see more information below.)

Free Shredding Event

Emerald Isle Immigration Center and The NYC Mayor’s Office, Community Affairs Unit invites the community to bring personal and confidential documents  to our Free Shredding Event.

Saturday, April 30th 10 AM – 1 PM

Emerald  Isle Immigration Center 5926 Woodside Avenue, Woodside NY 11377

For more information please contact coordinator@eiic.org more

The 108th Precinct Community Affairs/Crime Prevention Unit Police Officers will provide:

  • Personal Safety, Identity Theft and Auto Theft Prevention Information.
  • Electronic Devices registrations with NYPD Operation I.D.

Operation ID is offered free of charge by the New York City Police Department and involves registering the serial number of valuable portable electronics along with owner’s name and contact information.

Free Shredding Event En

 

USCIS Reaches FY 2017 H-1B Cap

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2017. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U.S. advanced degree exemption.

USCIS will use a computer-generated process, also known as the lottery, to randomly select the petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 visas for the general category and 20,000 for the advanced degree exemption.

USCIS will first randomly select petitions for the advanced degree exemption. All unselected advanced degree petitions will become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general cap. The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not duplicate filings.

Before running the lottery, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period, which ended April 7. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date it will conduct the random selection process.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, will also not be counted toward the congressionally mandated FY 2017 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

  • Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;
  • Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
  • Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
  • Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.

We encourage H-1B applicants to subscribe to the H-1B Cap Season email updates located on the H-1B Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Cap Season Web page.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Facebook (/uscis), Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.

Maureen Fegan

As a mark of respect for our esteemed colleague Maureen Fegan, who died Saturday March 19th, our Bronx office will close at 2pm Tuesday March 22nd and all day on Wednesday March 23rd.

Funeral Arrangements:
Wake and Viewing will take place on Tuesday, March 22nd from 2pm to 4pm and from 7pm to 9pm at: David J. Hodder & Son Funeral Home located at: 899 McLean Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10704.

Funeral Liturgy will take place on Wednesday, March 23rd at 9:45 am at St. Barnabas’ Church located at: 409 East 241st Street, Bronx, NY 10470.