Why is my wife a better immigration lawyer than I am? Hi, I'm Jim Hacking immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States at our offices in St. Louis, Missouri and San Diego, California.
If you haven't met my wife, you're in for a real treat when you do. I met her on the first day of law school. I held the door open for her, as we walked in on her first day. I can still remember the dress that she was wearing that day and her big curly hair. I was smitten. But, in any event, we didn't practice law together until 2016. So, we graduated from law school and Amany worked for some judges, and I had some different jobs. I opened up the firm in 2007, and she joined us about 10 years later. And she's really helped us get this firm cooking, operating on all cylinders.
And when I think about Amany, I think about how relentless she is. And I have a few tales that I'd like to share with you that sort of demonstrate that. And one of them is not immigration or legally related at all. So, this week I was out of town for most of the week and the trash company did not pick up our trash. In fact, it didn't pick up any trash from anyone in the neighborhood. And in our neighborhood, we're sort of surrounded by woods and we have big fat raccoons, who like to come eat the trash. So, after a day or two of this Amany got fed up. So, they were supposed to come on Monday or Tuesday, they didn't come on Wednesday, they didn't come on Thursday. Amany kept calling, and calling, and calling because she's relentless. She does not let something go. She's like a dog with a bone. And she kept bothering them and harassing them. And she would call and get customer service. And she'd ask for a supervisor.
This is what she does to USCIS. So, the skills that she's developed as an immigration lawyer have served her well in the rest of her life or vice versa. And she finally got ahold of some head person yesterday. And, in the meantime, the whole neighborhood had started talking about how the trash had never been picked up. And we were in the chat and everybody was talking, "Oh my God, I can't believe it. It's now Friday, the trash is piling up." And lo and behold, the trash company sent a truck down yesterday. And we live at the bottom of the hill. They drove past all of our neighbors and picked up our trash and left.
Now, I feel really bad for the rest of our neighbors, but it just goes to show how relentless Amany is and how she goes above and beyond to get rid of the trash, and above and beyond for her clients. I don't know that I would've had the patience to deal with Waste Management, that's the shitty trash company that we have. But she was certainly willing to go that extra mile. And the neighbors were actually laughing about how she was able to get that done.
It also reminds me of another story that is immigration law related. So, I've told this story before, but Amany had a client who was married and was applying for a green card. The client lived in Atlanta and the spouse lived here in St. Louis with us. And the interview was scheduled like in February, I think in Atlanta. And it was supposed to be an ice storm. Well, Amany's flight got canceled, she switched airlines. We got her a new ticket and she went down. And as soon as she arrived, the US citizen spouse up in St. Louis said, "Hmm, I think there's an ice storm. I don't know if I actually come. Amany said, "Get your butt down here." So, he went down. And the next morning the ice storm never happened. There was nothing.
Now, USCIS had called the money the night before and said the interview was canceled. But even though they had told her that she went over the next day and said, "Hey, look," she knocked on the door. She talked to security. She went in up to USCIS and said, "Hey, my clients are in the hotel across the street. I'm in the hotel, across the street. The ice storm never came. Would you be willing to interview us?" And you know what? They did. And she got her client, the green card. And so it was really a great result, but it's just another example of how relentless Amany is.
And so, she really pushes all of us to do a good job, to do our best and to set our clients up for success. She pushes all of us. She can be a little bit intimidating, but it's only because she cares about the two first core values of the Hacking Immigration Law, which are we fight for immigrants every day. And we do what's in the best interest of the client. She always comes back to that. And she's really good about centering me and getting me focused on those things. So, if you're lucky enough to have Amany as your lawyer, you're really going to be in good shape.
If you have questions about how we do things around here, give us a call at 314-961-8200. You can email us at [email protected]. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home. We'd love to have you join us in there. There's about 5,000 members in there now. We also have our YouTube channel where we update every single day a new video. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon Central Time, you'll usually find me in our Facebook group, answering as many immigration law related questions as possible. And we'll leave a note down below how you can join in the fun. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
