John Stahl

Northeast USCIS offices closed on Friday, January 3rd for inclement weather

USCIS Northeast Region components: D-01 (BOS) and D-03 (NYC) and D-04 (NEW), all interviews and appointments at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices in Boston, MA; Lawrence, MA; Manchester, NH; Portland, ME; Providence, RI; Manhattan, NY; Queens, NY; Long Island, NY; and Newark, NJ on Friday 1/3 are being rescheduled due to inclement weather. USCIS will get in touch with customers with appointments on 1/3 with a new date and time..

The following tables provide guidance on rescheduling your appointment if your local USCIS field or international office, or application support center (ASC) is closed temporarily or until further notice.

Field Office and International Office Closures
If You Then
Have an appointment for an interview and the USCIS office you have been scheduled for is closed, USCIS will automatically reschedule you for an interview as soon as possible.
Scheduled an InfoPass appointment and the USCIS office you have been scheduled for is closed You will need to schedule a new appointment on your own.

 

ASC Closures
If an ASC Then  We Note
Is closed temporarily on the day of your Biometrics appointment for an unforeseen circumstance such as inclement weather or a power outage; Will automatically reschedule all applicants to the next available appointment date . If you would prefer to come in once the office reopens we will process walk-ins on a case-by-case basis; however, the ASC may experience multiple walk-ins on the days following a closure and you may experience longer wait times.
Has closed until further notice and the reopen date is not known Will automatically reschedule your appointment to the nearest ASC for processing based on your ZIP code This will continue until the ASC has confirmed a reopening date.

 

 

Application Period for Diversity Visa Lottery (DV-2015) Begins on October 1, 2013

 

Online registration for the DV-2015 Program will begin on Tuesday, October 1, 2013 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), and conclude on Saturday, November 2, 2013 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4). Applications must be submitted electronically at www.dvlottery.state.gov.

After the entry period opens October 1st, we recommend early entry, and we strongly encourage applicants not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter. There is no fee to submit an application. Contact our offices if you need assistance applying or have questions about the program.

See the Diversity Visa Program Instructions official webpage for the DV-2015 instructions and further information.

Diversity Visa Lottery (DV-2014) Results Announced

 

Since May 1, 2013, all DV-2014 applicants are required to verify the results of their entry online at www.dvlottery.state.gov. They will not be contacted by mail or e-mail. They must enter their application Confirmation Number from the online application receipt, their Last Name/Family Name, and Year of Birth in order to check the status online. Results will be posted online until September 30, 2014. Applicants should keep their confirmation numbers until September 2014 as more winners may be selected later. All “winners” of the DV-2014 lottery must be processed for a green card before September 30, 2014.

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The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2014 diversity lottery.  The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.  Approximately 140,660 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2014 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2014 (October 1, 2013 until September 30, 2014).

Applicants registered for the DV-2014 program were selected at random from 9,374,191 qualified entries (14,633,767 with derivatives) received during the
30-day application period that ran from noon, Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, October 2, 2012, until noon, Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, November 3, 2012.  The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country.  During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years.  Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly.  Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Registrants living legally in the United States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must contact the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on the requirements and procedures.  Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2014 will end.  Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2014 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2014 registration.  Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2014 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2014.

Dates for the DV-2015 program registration period will be widely publicized in the coming months.  Those interested in entering the DV-2015 program should check the Department of State’s Visa web page for more details in September.

* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) passed by Congress
in November 1997 stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas be made available for use under the NACARA program.  The reduction of the limit of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000.

The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2014 program:

 

AFRICA

ALGERIA  2,583 GABON  72 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE  0
ANGOLA  84 GAMBIA, THE  67 SENEGAL  824
BENIN  639 GHANA  3,945 SEYCHELLES  5
BOTSWANA  19 GUINEA  1,759 SIERRA LEONE  2,977
BURKINA FASO  267 GUINEA-BISSAU  14 SOMALIA  273
BURUNDI  138 KENYA  4,245 SOUTH AFRICA  1,038
CAMEROON  4,268 LESOTHO  6 SOUTH SUDAN  18
CAPE VERDE  33 LIBERIA  3,809 SUDAN   2,281
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 45 LIBYA  156 SWAZILAND  5
CHAD  49 MADAGASCAR  50 TANZANIA  209
COMOROS  5 MALAWI  52 TOGO  1,481
CONGO  236 MALI  176 TUNISIA  159
CONGO,DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE 6,025 MAURITANIA  21 UGANDA  620
COTE D’IVOIRE 1,399 MAURITIUS  68 ZAMBIA  117
DJIBOUTI  75 MOROCCO  2,428 ZIMBABWE  196
EGYPT  5,757 MOZAMBIQUE  21
EQUATORIAL GUINEA  4 NAMIBIA  12
ERITREA  837 NIGER  137
ETHIOPIA  5,718 NIGERIA  6,043
RWANDA  477

ASIA 

AFGHANISTAN  447 ISRAEL  330 OMAN  12
BAHRAIN  27 JAPAN  861 QATAR  43
BHUTAN  21 JORDAN  581 SAUDI ARABIA  467
BRUNEI  3 NORTH KOREA  3 SINGAPORE  119
BURMA  696 KUWAIT  275 SRI LANKA  1,616
CAMBODIA  1,892 LAOS  9 SYRIA  493
HONG KONG SPECIAL  ADMIN. REGION  159 LEBANON  396 TAIWAN  723
INDONESIA  379 MALAYSIA  167 THAILAND  131
IRAN  6,027 MALDIVES  4 TIMOR-LESTE  0
IRAQ  384 MONGOLIA  224 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 167
NEPAL  6,082 YEMEN  532

EUROPE

ALBANIA  3,289 GEORGIA  806 NORTHERN IRELAND  37
ANDORRA  2 GERMANY  1,696 NORWAY  63
ARMENIA  2,221 GREECE  230 POLAND  1,552
AUSTRIA  150 HUNGARY  363 PORTUGAL  124
AZERBAIJAN  494 ICELAND  49      Macau  12
BELARUS  1,873 IRELAND  175 ROMANIA  1,245
BELGIUM  120 ITALY  787 RUSSIA  4,544
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 153 KAZAKHSTAN  784 SAN MARINO  1
BULGARIA  1,957 KOSOVO  257 SERBIA  582
CROATIA  125 KYRGYZSTAN  537 SLOVAKIA  115
CYPRUS  24 LATVIA  147 SLOVENIA  14
CZECH REPUBLIC  133 LIECHTENSTEIN  1 SPAIN  485
DENMARK  103 LITHUANIA  385     Western Sahara 1
    Greenland  1 LUXEMBOURG  13 SWEDEN  225
ESTONIA  75 MACEDONIA  421 SWITZERLAND  224
FINLAND  111 MALTA  6 TAJIKISTAN  531
FRANCE  958 MOLDOVA  2,903 TURKEY  3,972
    French Polynesia  8 MONACO  2 TURKMENISTAN  216
    French Southern and MONTENEGRO  20 UKRAINE  6,009
       Antarctic Territories 4 NETHERLANDS  225 UZBEKISTAN  5,014
    New Caledonia  1    Aruba  6 VATICAN CITY  0
    Saint Martin  2    Curacao  4
   Sint Maarten  2

NORTH AMERICA

BAHAMAS, THE  23

OCEANIA

AUSTRALIA  2,104 NAURU  12 SOLOMON ISLANDS  3
    Cocos Islands  1 NEW ZEALAND  674 TONGA    105
    Norfolk Island  2     Cook Islands 4 TUVALU  1
FIJI  1,174     Niue  25 VANUATU  17
KIRIBATI  6     Tokelau  3
MARSHALL ISLANDS  2 PALAU  0
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF 5 PAPUA NEW GUINEA  34
SAMOA  43

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA  11 GRENADA  31 SAINT LUCIA  42
ARGENTINA  218 GUATEMALA  225 SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES  13
BARBADOS  34 GUYANA  50 SURINAME  27
BELIZE  18 HONDURAS  121 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO  246
BOLIVIA  145 NICARAGUA  78 URUGUAY  41
CHILE  50 PANAMA  22 VENEZUELA  1,905
COSTA RICA  101 PARAGUAY  27
CUBA  1,178 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS  15
DOMINICA  22

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2014:  Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., Macau S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

 

Response to Senate Vote on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

 

Woodside, NY —The Emerald Isle Immigration Center (EIIC)  thanked Senator Schumer (D-NY) and other members of the Gang of Eight for their unwavering commitment to immigration reform after the bill passed yesterday in the Senate by a 68-32 vote.

EIIC Chairman Brian O’Dwyer noted, “ We admire and salute our New York Senator who has worked tirelessly on this issue with us for over two decades. We congratulate him and the Gang of Eight for their hard work so far and for steering S.744 through the Senate.

We are delighted to see the legislation moving forward and are now eagerly awaiting forward looking action in the House and the final passage of this long awaited and badly needed immigration reform”