Immigration help set Saturday

New Hampshire Catholic Charities will offer monthly workshops to help Nashua-area immigrants become U.S. citizens.

The first of the workshops, which are held the last Saturday of the month, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, at the charity’s 261 Lake Street headquarters, according to a press release.

The Naturalization Workshops are being paid for by a N.H. Bar Association Justice grant and are being taught by Catholic Charities’ immigration lawyer, Francis Agyare, according to the release.

The Charities applied for the grant last year when the federal government raised the naturalization filing fees by hundreds of dollars, according to Paul McAvoy, NHCC spokesperson. Applicants will still have to pay those fees but can get cheap legal advice through the workshops.

That’s important, he said, because one mistake and “often it will bounce back and the whole application will be denied.”

Agyare will work with groups of applicants who are low-income, permanent citizens or family members of citizens to work through the forms and applications needed to become a U.S. citizen, according to the release.

Applicants will still have to pay application-filing fees, and the legal advice will be provided for $50, according to the release, hundreds less than normal.

“Right now N.H. Catholic Charities is the only one that offers these kinds of low-income programs,” McAvoy said. “This is a way they can get the process done with an official attorney for $50.”

More of the workshops are scheduled for Sept. 27, Oct. 25, Nov. 29 and Dec. 27, according to the release, and more will be held in Manchester or Concord if needed.

For more information or to RSVP, call 889-9431.