John Liu joins to support Citizenship NO...

John Liu joins to support Citizenship NO...

Jeanne Noonan/for New York Daily News

New York City Controller John Liu volunteers by answering the phone at Daily News and CUNY Citizenship NOW! hotline.

Friday is the last chance to call the Citizenship NOW! hotline and receive free, confidential answers to your immigration questions.

Hundreds of volunteers have been manning the phone lines all week offering help to thousands of callers between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Many, like Jules Galavza, have taken time off work just to assist New Yorks immigrant community but say they would not be anywhere else.

I like being able to serve the people and help them with their questions, said Galavza, 53, who runs a travel agency in Allentown, Pa., but came to New York simply to help at Citizenship NOW! So many places charge a lot of money for this help, but here it is free. This is my four th year helping at the call-in.

There are dedicated Spanish- and English-speaking lines at the Daily News and CUNY event, but the volunteers speak up to 50 languages including Haitian Creole and Cantonese.

They arrive in shifts each day to answer calls about an array of issues regarding green cards, citizenship or visa-related travel restrictions.

Attorneys are also on hand to tackle some of the more complex cases including members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which is one of the sponsors of the event.

Its rewarding being here, said immigration attorney Shavit Yarden. Theres a lot of unmet need, and if we want to be a modern society, we have to make sure people have the right knowledge to make decisions about their immigration issues.

Citizenship NOW! has been attended by an array of high-profile guests since it began Monday, including Mayor Bloomberg and New York Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer.

On Thursday, state Assemblywoman Grace Meng and city Controller John Liu threw their weight behind the 10th annual call-in.

This is an incredible service . . . and an incredible milestone, Liu said. Immigrants in New York are like everybody else, they want to put food on the table and a roof over their kids head. Theres no better place to become a U.S. citizen than in New York City.

cboyle@nydailynews.com