Josh and Seyma need help fighting for our rights!

Hello everyone! For those who don't know us, my name is Josh, and my wife's name is Seyma (pronounced Shay-muh). I'm a U.S. citizen, born in California, and Seyma is from Istanbul, Turkey. We are seeking help with legal fees to fight for our right to be married and Seyma's right to become a U.S. citizen.

In 2019, we met in a coffee shop for the first time, and a short while later, we were married. We fell in love fast and hard, and it's been a happy, healthy, and fairly typical marriage for three years. Typical--except for a dark cloud looming over us... The United State's disappointing immigration system.

As soon as we were married, we filed an I-130, which tells the Court that Seyma married a U.S. citizen. It involves a marriage interview to "validate" the marriage, and it's the first step in a long green card process. The path to citizenship is not easy and is long; however, the courts should take only about a year to recognize an I-130 petition at most. So we waited to hear back from the courts. And waited. And waited some more...

In the time that we have waited, we have had to deal with a lot of headaches, but my poor Seyma has had to endure so much that I can't help but feel embarrassed by our immigration system. First, she was put on something called Alternative To Detention. For the last three years, she has had weekly check-ins on a government app that scans her face. She can't leave our home State without authorization. (Vacations are challenging). She can't leave the U.S. to see her family in Turkey, or we lose everything we have fought for. (I see her in literal physical pain from this). She has to have her driver's license renewed every year. She is constantly terrified she will lose her job due to delayed work permits. We have been discriminated against when dealing with certain financial institutions that require proof of legal citizenship. And I could go on and on, seriously.

The only thing that has kept our heads up is our commitment to each other and the faint hope that someone would finally pick up our case off their desk and get it done.

But after three years, we had given up until our lawyer finally provided an opportunity to throw a Hail Mary. He offered us a chance to sue the government with a writ of mandamus. A writ of mandamus was designed for this exact situation. The government cannot let a case sit in limbo forever, so a mandamus forces the government to act. We scraped our only savings, paid our lawyer a large sum to put the lawsuit together, and submitted years of photgraphs of anniversaries, memories, and legal documents.

I still can't believe we had to sue the government to take action, but thankfully, it worked! Within a couple of weeks, we had action on our case, and the I-130 was approved shortly after. Three years of torture--three years of our lives together being on hold, and now we move on to the following step in the green card process: adjusting Seyma's status to a lawful permanent resident.

The problem is this: we have spent over six thousand dollars on legal fees, and we must pay another 4225 dollars for this final step. About 1225 goes directly to the government filing fees, and the rest goes to the lawyer. We have already paid what we can and need another 3000 as soon as possible so that we can be done with all this and begin to really enjoy our lives together and regain some sense of normalcy. I can promise that we will be eternally grateful for your help with our much-needed legal fees.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and may god and the universe bring positivity into your life.

-Josh and Seyma