Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Work week’s end
Now that I’m back in the workforce, Friday takes on a certain significance. It’s a day to be productive and it’s also a day to put the finishing touches on a week’s worth of busyness. Today I have a long list of intake calls to make. Depending on what kind of case presents itself I have guidelines to follow that are different from my usual. That is because the four of us who do this work have reached a critical mass of cases. So, in many cases I’m sending out a referral list of local immigration attorneys to a fair number of callers. The sad part about that is that people are likely to be turned away from the not-for-profit agencies on that list because they are bursting at the seams as well. That leaves attorneys in private practice, and there’s no free help to be found there.
Some of my cases are coming to resolution. I have several family members of my clients whose appointments for a visa interview have been granted. That means if they pass the interview they will be headed this way to join their family members. This application for a visa and subsequent green card is onerous and lengthy. I think about the three brothers in Turkey whose cases have been open since 2005. Their brother, who became a US citizen years ago, started the application process for them nearly 20 years ago. I’ve been working on the cases since 2019. Two of the brothers have passed their interviews and are now in the United States making new lives. For some odd reason, the third brother has not been approved yet, even though all of the requirements have been met. There is sometimes very little rhyme or reason to a delay, and no opportunity to speak to a live human being at the National Visa Center.
I have a client who is a citizen applying for her husband and his young daughter in Ghana. They have been married for two years now and her case is newly arrived at the National Visa Center. We need to proceed slowly on the cases because each one will cost several hundred dollars to process and money is tight for her. The daughter is not her biological child, but is now her step-daughter for whom she can apply. This young girl is in her father’s care because the mother “gave” her to him to raise, and disappeared. Chances are that the State Department will require them to take a DNA test to prove paternity. This is a problem because facilities to do such a test are rare in Ghana, and the process will no doubt be expensive.
After a great day on Tuesday when my young man from Senegal passed his citizenship interview, I counted up my cases from Africa: Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Zambia, Lesotho. As I write these names I am taken by the exotic names of places I will never have occasion to visit. And I have a direct connection to Nigeria since my grandsons are as African American as they can be. My eyes have been opened to the African Diaspora and I want to learn more about that continent. A friend of mine recently returned from a photo safari and has been posting stunning pictures of birds and big cats and elephants. My grandsons visited Nigeria last Summer and met their great grandmother and some cousins, then took a tour of several countries. They took lots of pictures and shared them.
I have gone through my roster of cases and identified a couple of clients who, despite frequent calls and emails, have not been in contact with me for months. I will close two of them this week. That gives a little wiggle room to take a new case or two. Our work is funded by a grant intended to finance cases of immigrants who are victims of crime or domestic violence. We are obligated to take those cases regardless of our work load.
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work I go. Happy Friday, if that means anything to you!