Emergency funding for Sihan's immigration status

Hi everyone, my name is Sihan. I am a photographer and filmmaker born in Shanghai and have been living in Baltimore, MD for 7 years. My immigration status is currently at risk, and unfortunately, I have been in this emergency since last week that requires immediate funding to afford the legal process. I found out I will reach detainment status by 10/31/2023, which leaves me only 12 days left to solve the crisis.

Due to a backlog of legal complications resulting from a robbery I experienced in June, I was not able to properly address my immigration status until now. That robbery cost me over $6000, a huge loss for me while trying to maintain food and housing. When I finally found a suitable lawyer for my case, our meeting could not fit the schedule until last week. Since then I have been working diligently to resolve this issue, and I need all the help I can get.

I can’t risk being banned from my friends and community, who are real family to me when my parents have been half an earth away from me. I really do hope to achieve a safe status and be able to travel legally between Baltimore and Shanghai. I have accumulated my belongings and social networks here in the US since I left my home and family at age 16. I would love to visit my home and see my family and my grandmother, but I would be crushed to give up everything I have here. There are many cities that are charming, like a rose garden flourishing in a greenhouse, but Baltimore stood out to me as beautiful in the ways a diamond shines beneath the earth’s pressure. I have many friends and colleagues in Baltimore who fight as artists in this city and in this system. They inspire me to be resilient and strong like diamonds do, yet I’m afraid I have reached one of the toughest times that is beyond my capacity to save myself alone. So, if you understand that I’m trying my best to communicate the incommunicable, and explain the inexplicable, I will forever appreciate your generosity in any form, and a chance to continue making art here in the USA. For more direct financial help, my cashapp is $Sihani.