Last year, after an epiphany during one of my birding walks, I decided to implement “love” as an action item in my life. The pandemic lockdowns and the chaos caused by it all around me made me realize I can’t change the world, but I can try to change myself. I wanted to stress less, withstand challenges better, be a better mother to my children, and be a better lawyer for my clients. And so, an experiment began. I would love more.

I planned to treat each action item with more love in my heart — whether it is writing checks to pay bills, writing difficult briefs and letters on behalf of my clients in the ever-evolving complexities that U.S. immigration laws create, and just about everything else I must do as a mother, lawyer, employer, business owner, and active community member. I didn’t expect anything in return except my personal well-being.

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In this experiment, I learned that, like meditation, the “action” of “love” is a practice. It doesn’t happen in one day. You must keep remembering to do so, especially when someone or something triggers negative emotions like anxiety, stress, fear, or anger.

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When it came to my cases, each time challenges flowed out of the files, I reminded myself to love the file and the client behind it more so I could let love energize the work needed for the case.

For example, one of my clients, an older retired U.S. citizen, and his wife from Southeast Asia, applied for a marriage-based adjustment green card application, pro se several months before the pandemic began. The wife received permission to travel abroad, also known as “advanced parole.” She left the U.S. with the intention to return in less than four weeks. However, during her trip, the whole world went into lockdown. She immediately got stuck. She couldn’t return because of a host of COVID-19 restrictions, including grounded flights, closed borders, etc.

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During that time, her advance parole expired, which was not renewable from outside the U.S. As a result of her not being able to reenter the U.S. and attend the interview set in her case, the green card application was denied. The case was dead, and she would have to start again. But this time, she would have to remain outside for the next three to four years that the case would need to process. I was retained to see if there was any way out of this hopeless situation.

Naturally, this couple was anxious and frustrated at this predicament. Life finally brought them love, and suddenly pandemic restrictions separated them. Their stress was palpable facing such an impossible and unjust situation. It was a daunting challenge, but I felt compelled to take it on, seeing the love they had for each other, and the sadness brought on by the forced separation.

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We appealed the case. Preparing for the appeal was an arduous task as we had to gather significant evidence about why the client could not return — such as evidence of government announcements of grounded flights, borders closed, and unavailability of vaccines — to create a chronology of events through the evidence. It was storytelling and so much more.

I don’t typically file appeals since they go into a procedural black hole; however, in this instance, we had to because, without a reopened case, the client could not get a new advance parole. To my pleasant surprise and great relief, the appeal was granted. Reopening the case allowed us to renew her advanced parole. A few months ago, she was able to reenter the United States.

And just before Christmas 2022, the couple received their present — a green card in her hands. It was a sweet victory, for sure.

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This was one of my most significant victories to date because of its unprecedented nature — feeling my way through each step, not knowing how the next step would look. I wasn’t sure we would be able to overcome some of the challenges that came along the way. But with my new mantra, “embrace the challenge with love and discharge the responsibility with love,” I give at least partial credit to my extra injection of love to this success.

What is truly magical, though, is that while I was intentionally and actively adding love to everything I was doing, I didn’t realize love was coming back to me. It took a while to notice it.

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Our clients, for the most part, were able to get calmer in their stressful situations. It helped them trust the universe and the issues that were out of their control. On many occasions, perhaps more than any previous year, I laughed with my clients and cried with them too. The connections felt stronger.

When I discussed some of my challenges with my clients, I could feel their love and kindness through their emails and voices. I was touched and overwhelmed by many of these encounters.

And when it comes to nature — the birds, the squirrels, the deer, and other wildlife — I felt they saw me! They looked at me and posed for me. I felt their love.

In sum, I learned in 2022 that what you put out in the world will return to you in spades. Love is indeed a boomerang.

Tahmina Watson is the founding attorney of Watson Immigration Law in Seattle, where she practices US immigration law focusing on business immigration. She has been blogging about immigration law since 2008 and has written numerous articles in many publications. She is the author of Legal Heroes in the Trump Era: Be Inspired. Expand Your Impact. Change the World and The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth and Economic Prosperity in America.  She is also the founder of The Washington Immigrant Defense Network (WIDEN), which funds and facilitates legal representation in the immigration courtroom, and co-founder of Airport Lawyers, which provided critical services during the early travel bans. Tahmina is regularly quoted in the media and is the host of the podcast Tahmina Talks Immigration. She is a Puget Sound Business Journal 2020 Women of Influence honoree.  Business Insider recently named her as one of the top immigration attorneys in the U.S. that help tech startups. You can reach her by email at [email protected], connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter at @tahminawatson.

Topics

Immigration, Small Law Firms, Tahmina Watson