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Ava & Meher, NYC 4/13/17

I have been waiting to write this one for decades.  Meher is one of my favorite people and on May 18, 2017, she will take the oath of United States citizenship in her hometown of New York, NY.  It was a 16 year journey that Meher and I began in our twenties.  We have moved across jobs, law firms, cities, and countries together.  Meher and I both overcame challenges to find enduring peace at this point in our lives.  Over those 16 years, we have cheered each other on while working together to handle all the roadblocks that immigration law, bureaucratic inefficiency and life threw our way.

Meher’s journey from Mumbai, India involved work in New York, a return to Mumbai, lots of work in Connecticut and extraordinary delays in her efforts to get her residence.  Meher got her residence through employment, but the path was littered by the extraordinary backlog in the Indian employment-based third preference, the tech bubble popping, the 2008 everything bubble popping and a return to Mumbai.  Through it all, we kept her residence application going until that magical priority date rolled around.

Meher, beautiful, smart, charming and overall delightful, could have married an American.  Plenty sought her as their wife.  But Meher, ever herself, was determined to do it her way.  And when life threw her challenges, Meher dug in and willed her way forward.

One of the things I love about immigration is how it allows me to tell the stories of the most extraordinary people that surround us.  And for all the hyperbole about immigrants, all of them share a desire to make themselves who and what they want to be.  To watch that passion up close and to draw my own strength from it is the greatest gift an attorney can receive.

So proud and happy for you, Meher.  Love, ACB