The Emerald Isle Immigration Center's highly qualified staff assists clients in many aspects of immigrant life and law. The EIIC prides itself on the extraordinary services it provides.

Meals On Wheels program provides daily meals to local Seniors

The Emerald Isle Immigration Center’s Meals On Wheels program provides daily meals to local Seniors who are unable to prepare meals for themselves due to an age related disability or illness.  The meals are delivered daily by a group of dedicated volunteers. We are always seeking new volunteers so please contact us at 718-324-3039 ext. 102 if you are interested or if you know of someone who would like to become a meal recipient. This program is generously funded by NYS Senator Jeff Klein and the New York State Department Of Aging (NYS DOA).

 

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.

Emerald Isle closed while making improvements

Emerald Isle Immigration Center is proud to have been an integral part of the Woodlawn community for over 20 years. Since 1993, we have grown in service and in size. Earlier this year we were fortunate to become the owner of our long-time office at 4275 Katonah Avenue. Over the past weeks we have discovered the need to make emergency repairs to our building.

These emergency repairs have caused the occasional temporary closing of our office in the Bronx. For this we apologize to our clients and community. Please be assured that we will reopen as soon as possible.

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USCIS Website, E-Verify Now Optimized for Mobile Devices

USCIS today announced a series of enhancements to make its website and online products easier to use on mobile devices.

Visitors will find uscis.gov and the Spanish site uscis.gov/es easier to read and use because the content now automatically adjusts to fit the screen of a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.

The agency’s move to mobile-responsive design includes the E-Verify program, as well as USCIS’ new digital assistant Emma.

“As technology progresses, digital platforms can no longer take a one-size-fits-all approach,” said USCIS Director León Rodríguez. “We listened to our customers. Significant numbers access our site and services through mobile devices. These changes will make a big difference in improving their online experience.”

About 30 percent of visitors to the English site and more than 50 percent visiting the Spanish site now use a mobile device.

Among the improvements:

  • Menu options now collapse for easier viewing on smaller screens or browser windows.
  • Users will find it easier to access SAVE CaseCheck from mobile devices to check whether immigration status queries submitted by benefit-granting agencies are complete.
  • Enhancements to E-Verify make logging in and viewing cases quicker and more efficient.  Many of these ideas came from customer submissions through the E-Verify Listens website. These include case creation screens that now replicate the order of fields on Form I-9.

These improvements are part of a USCIS commitment to use technology and innovation to meet the evolving needs of its customers, and a step toward a fully electronic immigration system.

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