Urgent: Help Simöne afford an Immigration Lawyer

UPDATE: we reached the urgent goal!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated, shared, and sent me messages of support. This is a life changing amount of help and I couldn't have afforded a lawyer without the community's support.

When I send the final documents, I will need to pay the work permit fee ($520) and the travel permit fee ($630).

With the support I've received, I only need around $700 more to be able to send both applications

While it's definitely not urgent, I do need to pay and send them before the year ends, so I can send the full application asap.

Thank you again for sharing and for reading, time is of the essence for me at the moment, and you taking the time to read with your community is very valuable to me, thank you.

My name is Simöne, I am a migrant Chilean trans woman, and I´ve been working these past 2 years on getting my green card documents while living in the US.

The urgent expense for hiring a lawyer to help me with the process is a $4500 retainer fee, a $520 fee for the working permit, and a $630 fee for traveling back to Chile in case of a family health emergency.

The $4500 fee is urgent, as if I don't carry this process quickly, it might not be possible to do it at all.

I have been working on the process by myself for more than two years, and only recently got a pro bono lawyer for the last documents that needed sending, but couldn't go through with it because of how limited the time she was able to put into the case was. Unfortunately, because of the current political climate, I URGENTLY need to regularize my situation, because being an immigrant trans woman, without income, or the ability to have my own resources, will become exceedingly dangerous in a few months.

The only way to get the documents filed and presented properly and in time, is through paying an expensive lawyer.

It's been really hard to get the money to apply for the process, and pay all the fees, let alone keep paying for my hormones (without insurance), and paying rent and bills. I've been working in Chile since before I even finished my studies, to be able to build some amount of stability so I can finally start living, instead of just surviving.

I wish I could manage to pay for all of this myself, but the only support I have from my family is not a lot, since they struggle with money and their financial situation is not good. I already sold all the things I had in Chile, and the only reason I got this far into the process is because of community support.

I am in need of support more urgently than ever.

Everything donated to the Gofundme will go directly to the lawyer expenses ($4500), and after reaching that goal, I will need to further increase it to cover the permits, which will allow me to actually have a job, have insurance, and be able to work and have income, and to visit my mom because her health has been declining.

Thank you for reading this, and please share this with your community if you can. I have never had this big of an urgency and everything helps me finally reach a point where I can have peace and stability, which I desperately need.