Today I want to tell you the story of one of my clients. Our firm helped a young woman from Syria come to the USA, and she was granted asylum.

Her brother tells her story.

“Our father was an oppositionist in Syria, everyone knew him. Years ago he left the country, we went with him. He settled in Egypt, and we started living in different countries when we grew up.

My sister Aliyah got married and lived in the United Arab Emirates until her husband lost his job. They lived in the UAE for 20 years, but in just one day their life fell apart!

Aliyah’s husband was told at work that he would soon be fired because of the recession. The family would have to go back to Syria.
Aliyah and her husband couldn’t even travel to neighboring countries because they wouldn’t let her in with a Syrian passport. It was a disaster.

I had to help my sister. I found out that there was a lawyer, Ismail Shahtakhtinski, and he had a law firm. He gave free consultations to Syrians. I went to him for help.

It was great luck that Aliyah already had a tourist visa to come to the U.S. Aliyah was very nervous because she knew she wasn’t an ordinary tourist. But everything was good.

Ismail is a very good lawyer, he helped us a lot. The whole process took a year, I was the interpreter for my sister at the interview. Her case was 400 pages long! But in the end, my sister was granted asylum. Now she has a good job, and her kids are studying.

If the family had been in Syria, Aliyah’s children would be in the war right now”.