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Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services provides a path to bring a new family together.


The Immigration program, recognized by the Department of Justice (DOJ), provides affordable, fee-based services to individuals by or under the supervision of a DOJ accredited representative to renew their Green Cards or employment authorization cards, file family petitions and help immigrants find a path to citizenship.​ Below is a story of a client and his family who was able to use our services to begin his path to citizenship and start a family in the United States.

In 1998, when my husband Lewis was just 8-years old, he arrived in Florida with his mother and two siblings. I was a foster child from the age of 13. By 15, I was living in California and like most others my age, I created a page on the social media website MySpace. Lewis and I somehow connected there, and we formed a friendship and talked online for many years. I knew I wanted to meet Lewis in person someday, and in 2010 I took a trip to Florida to meet him and his family for the first time. I never went back to California.

Lewis and I got an apartment and were married on Jan. 24, 2011. We spent those first years enjoying each other before our first child arrived in 2015. I finally had the family that I had always longed for.


That same year, Lewis was approved for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). At the time, he hadn’t applied for a green card because the cost was too overwhelming for our little family The DACA program provided us with a sense of security, knowing that he would be able to work, and we could save money to begin his immigration process.

Lewis has now worked for the same company for 10 years. He started as a line cook and has worked his way up to kitchen manager. Thanks to his job, I can be a stay-at-home mother to our son, and Lewis plans to start school next year.

To learn more about our immigration legal services or how we can help, contact us by email, IMMTEMP@ccbjax.org

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