The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs is pleased to be partnering with several non-profit organizations, including the New York Immigration Coalition, Haitian Americans United for Progress (HAUP) and CAMBA, to offer free legal assistance to Haitian immigrants who may be eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

About TPS
On January 15, 2010, the Attorney General designated Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) due to the devastation caused by the earthquake in that country. To be eligible, a Haitian national has to have resided in the United States on or before January 12, 2010. Individuals granted this temporary immigration status will be allowed to remain in the United States, and to obtain work authorization during the 18-month TPS validity period. The registration period to apply for TPS is currently scheduled to end on July 20, 2010.

Volunteers Needed
Volunteer lawyers are needed to staff temporary legal clinics in Brooklyn and Queens where they will provide legal information about TPS and assist Haitian nationals in completing applications.

If you are an attorney and interested in participating, you can register through NYC Service's website, http://www.nycservice.org/advanced_search.php#s, which will take you to the advanced search section. From there you can select "legal & justice" on the scroll-down menu of the "search by interest(s)" section, where you'll find "HELP HAITIAN NEW YORKERS" as the third listed opportunity. This site will describe the four free 2-hour TPS trainings being offered to lawyers interested in volunteering from now until July 20, 2010. Attorneys will receive 2 CLE credits (Professional Practice) appropriate for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys. Additional information about obtaining CLE credits will be provided at the time of registration.

Training dates, times and locations

If there are 40 attorneys or fewer that register for any one particular training offering, the training location will be at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) located at 137-139 West 25th Street, 12th Floor. If the number of attendees exceeds 40, we will be offering the training at one of the courtrooms at 111 Centre Street to accommodate the larger attendance. Once we know how many people have enrolled through the City's NYC Service website, we will know whether the alternative site will be necessary and will contact you by e-mail. Please note that registrations for the trainings will close two (2) days prior to each scheduled training.

Thursday, March 18th, 6-8 p.m.
Location (<40): NYIC Conf. Room
Location (>40): Courthouse space TBA

Wednesday, April 7th, 6-8 p.m.
Location (<40): NYIC Conf. Room
Location (>40): Courthouse space TBA

Thursday, May 6th, 6-8 p.m.
Location (<40): NYIC Conf. Room
Location (>40): Courthouse space TBA

Thursday, June 3rd, 6-8 p.m.
Location (<40): NYIC Conf. Room
Location (>40): Courthouse space TBA

Service Events (Clinics)

There will be several upcoming opportunities for trained attorneys to be part of the service events being held in Brooklyn and Queens from March through July. It is at these events that Haitian immigrants seeking TPS will be helped with such applications. Once trained, volunteer attorneys will receive notification about these clinics and will be asked to participate. Such information will be disseminated as early as the date of the training, or shortly thereafter.

For further information about this program, please call the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs at (212) 788-7654 or send an e-mail to MOIA@cityhall.nyc.gov.