Immigration & US Citizenship Notes

By Kieran C. O’Sullivan

Immigration Counselor

ipcboston@yahoo.com

Old Green Cards

With the holidays, we saw a few Irish immigrants make plans to visit home only to discover, sometimes too close to departure time, that their cards have expired.  Check your card today to make sure it is still valid. 

Selective Service

We remind all young immigrants between the ages of 18 and 26 to abide by the Selective Service requirement.  You may register for selective service at the local post office.  We were reminded of the importance of this recently when a young man approached us for help on applying for US citizenship.  His failure to comply with the selective service requirement may result in denial of his US Citizenship application.  You may also view information on the Selective Service at www.sss.gov  the following is a recent memo published on their site aimed at alerting immigrants to the requirement:

“ATTENTION, UNDOCUMENTED MALES & IMMIGRANT SERVICING GROUPS!

If you are a man ages 18 through 25 and living in the U.S., then you must register with Selective Service. It’s the law. You can register at any U.S. Post Office and do not need a social security number. When you do obtain a social security number, let Selective Service know. Provide a copy of your new social security number card; being sure to include your complete name, date of birth, Selective Service registration number, and current mailing address; and mail to the Selective Service System, P.O. Box 94636, Palatine, IL 60094-4636.

Be sure to register before your 26th birthday. After that, it’s too late!

Selective Service does not collect any information which would indicate whether or not you are undocumented. You want to protect yourself for future U.S. citizenship and other government benefits and programs by registering with Selective Service. Do it today.”

 Bank of America fingerprinting immigrants

We have had a number of complaints recently from Irish immigrants who called with regard to requests for fingerprints by Bank of America staff.  It has become practice it seems at BOA to request a fingerprint from some who are attempting to cash checks.  This is not being done at all banks, and we have yet to determine who BOA is sharing the information with.  It seems the fingerprint is not requested if you are a BOA customer and are simply depositing a check.  We will publish more information on this as it becomes available.  Meantime, there are many area banks allowing immigrants do business without being fingerprinted.

Legal Clinic

If you have any questions on getting a visa, green card, US citizenship, work permit, social security number or drivers license, come to our monthly for a one to one free consultation.  We will be having another legal clinic at Bad Abbots, Quincy Center on Tuesday Jan. 6, 2009.