Local group wants to provide legal services for Afghan refugees

PITTSBURGH — Christian Immigration Advocacy Center (CIAC) provides low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in the Pittsburgh area.

The goal of the organization is to get people to the Unites States safely, and all of their legal work for them. Their hope is that they eventually won’t have to charge these families a dollar.

Their organization focuses on the legal aspects of the immigration process such as a Green Card and Visas.

With the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, they now want to provide these services at *no-cost* to Afghans and refugees, but at this point, they don’t have the funding to do so and are asking the public to help.

“If we got the donations that we needed, a client could call and not have to pay any fees for us but still have high quality affordable care walking through a whole process with them, it would mean the world to people,” Accredited Representative and CIAC Financial Director Jessica Weaver said.

But there is a cost associated with the filings,

“There is a government cost to apply for anything, to apply to be a citizen of the US is $700, that’s a government fee that we can’t change,” Weaver said. “They are likely supporting other family members, supporting their community, working low income jobs, a couple hundred dollars for an attorney is a huge amount of money.”

A few hundred dollars is just a fraction of what an immigrant would pay if they went through a law firm. But in order to do cases without a cost the organization needs donations.

:A donation for our organization lets us keep lowering those costs, it pays our salaries to continue to care for them, our fees to be even more affordable and not be a burden for someone who is trying to feed their family and not pay an attorney,” Weaver said.

if you’re interested in making a donation, click here.

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