Simpson Thacher & Bartlett associates Shannon Torres and Dan Shin recently assisted the mother of two Bushwick High School students win legal permanent residence in the United States. The client was initially seen in 2009 at one of the Firm’s monthly legal clinics at the high school in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  She first attempted to get a green card in 1997, but her application, which was prepared by non-lawyers at an organization since shut down by the New York Attorney General’s Office for defrauding immigrants, was denied.

Before submitting a new application in 2011, the Simpson Thacher attorneys made Freedom of Information Act requests to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to attempt to locate the client’s proof of inspection (which had been lost when her passport was stolen in the 1990s), and the client spent nearly a year trying to obtain an original birth certificate.

After years of frustration and restricted travel, her application for permanent residency was approved. She is looking forward to traveling to her home country and seeing her family for the first time in 25 years.