Immigration and US Citizenship news

By Kieran C. O’Sullivan

Immigration Counselor

IPC Board Member meets with new Taoiseach

Chris Lavery, Immigration Attorney and IPC board member, represented our Board and had a meeting this week with Taoiseach Brian Cowen in New York. Representatives from the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers USA, the ILIR and other Irish centers across the US were also in attendance. The Taoiseach was thanked for his interest in immigrant issues down through the years, and briefed on the challenges facing Irish immigrants in the US. Chris was very pleased with how the meeting went, stating “The Taoiseach was very interested in the situation here including the welfare of Irish detainees held in US prisons, and he pledged the continued governments interest and support of our work.”

Diversity Visa lottery 2009 (DV-2009) results

We’d a call recently about the DV 2009 results. The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2009 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.

Ireland only granted 132 DVs

Approximately 99,600 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. However, Ireland only received 132 visas. 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-2009 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2009 (October 1, 2008 until September 30, 2009). If you are one of those selected for a visa, be sure to get advice from an immigration attorney or specialist before proceeding. Note the IPC legal clinic coming up on August 5 at Bad Abbotts, Quincy.

Detentions at airports

Irish immigrants are reminded that they should carry evidence of lawful status with them if going to pick up relatives at airports and valid passports are now required as ID when traveling. A number of detentions have been reported at airports around the country including Logan International Airport Boston.

US citizenship

A number of our clients were sworn in on July 16^th . If you have been putting off applying for US citizenship, give us a call and we can arrange to sit down with you after work at one of our evening workshops where you will get hands on help on the US citizenship application form.