• News
  • Business
  • Donate
  • Features
    • Opinions
    • Arts & Style
    • Video
    • Photos
    • Interviews
    • Audio
  • About Us
  • New Americans Business Magazine
  • Contact
  • News
  • Business
  • Donate
  • Features
    • Opinions
    • Arts & Style
    • Video
    • Photos
    • Interviews
    • Audio
  • About Us
  • New Americans Business Magazine
  • Contact
Popular
Recent
Comments
Tags
  • U. S. 2020 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program opens Wednesday, Oct, 3

    October 1, 2018

    Feyi Tolani: An Advocate-In-Nursing

    November 1, 2018

    America’s Immigration Debate: The “Danger of Telling a Single Story.”

    February 13, 2017
  • March Madness creates Unthinkable Moments

    March 28, 2023

    Three first-time teams make 2023 Men’s Final ...

    March 27, 2023

    Pakistan Children’s Heart Foundation North America ...

    March 22, 2023
  • Good job, sir!

    January 12, 2021

    I'm call Haji I live the dadaab comp I am a refuge ...

    October 12, 2020

    Narayan vai, you spoke the truth about the importa ...

    September 6, 2020
  • Zimbabwe Youths Youth Foundation Younger Ohioans Yoga International Day Yoga Day X Gender Passport Worthington Christian School World Food Day World Cup 2022 World Cup Workplace Women's Commission Women's Big 10 Women Basketball Women and Families Wisconsin Badgers Who wins Ohio 2018 elections? When DACA Calls Westerville schools Wellness Walk Weekend Weddings/Funerals Wedding banquet Wear Masks
  • March Madness creates Unthinkable Moments

  • Three first-time teams make 2023 Men’s Final ...

  • Pakistan Children’s Heart Foundation North America ...

  • Columbus Mayor Ginther highlights safety in State ...

  • Ohio State Women reach for NCAA Basketball last ei ...

  • Rep. Dontavius Jarrells returns to alma mater to g ...

  • Ohio Governor DeWine Approves $575,000 for Teen Dr ...

  • Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine and Moms2B work to red ...

  • Amy Harcar focuses lens on White Hall City Council ...

  •  CRIS, Columbus Division of Police build Community ...

  • Amy Harcar focuses lens on White Hall City Council ...

  • Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine and Moms2B work to red ...

  • Ohio Governor DeWine Approves $575,000 for Teen Dr ...

  • Rep. Dontavius Jarrells returns to alma mater to g ...

  • Ohio State Women reach for NCAA Basketball last ei ...

  • Columbus Mayor Ginther highlights safety in State ...

  • Pakistan Children’s Heart Foundation North America ...

  • Three first-time teams make 2023 Men’s Final ...

  • March Madness creates Unthinkable Moments

  •  CRIS, Columbus Division of Police build Community ...

Previous Next

Take it to the lawyer – Inna, Immigration Attorney

Posted by: Deba Uwadiae , November 11, 2016


Inna Simakovsky, an Immigration Attorney came to the United States with her parents from the former Soviet Union in 1976 as religious refugees. Though life as a child of a refugee was a daily struggle, it never deterred her, but rather, sowed in her the spirit of advocacy, to help people, especially refugees and immigrants. Today, Inna, who grew up in Columbus, Ohio presides over a leading law firm on East Main Street, Columbus, Ohio.


I always knew I wanted to do some sort of advocacy. When you are a child of a refugee, it is very difficult. You see the struggle for daily existence; for daily assimilation. Do I stick with my ties; do I go forward? Everything is new.

I went to college. After college, I ended up in Washington DC, working for a law firm as a para legal. The law firm offered me opportunity to go to Russia. That was my first trip back to Russia in 1993.

After that experience I came back to Ohio State and went to Law School. I just fell in love with immigration law.

I graduated in 1998 and I’ve been practicing since then. I moved to Washington State, then to San Francisco, California; Maddison, Wisconsin. We came back to Columbus in 2004. I was hired to run a non-profit organization that did immigration. Then I opened my law firm. 

Inspiration

I was inspired growing up in a refugee family, and seeing the struggle and being able to say well I can fix this part of it. I can be a voice for people that do not have a voice. I can help people navigate the immigration system. I can teach the right way to do it. I can help reunite families, I can help people get asylum. I have clients who come from countries that don’t treat their citizens well for various reasons. Being a former refugee, we were not treated well, and I can relate to what it feels like, coming to the U. S as a kid and growing up in the U. S system; I feel like have the best of both worlds. Because I know the struggle, I know how hard it is, but I have also assimilated enough to understand how the legal system works. 

Immigration Attorney

The desire to become an immigration attorney, the desire to help has come from very deep rooted sense of the immigrant spirit. I love it. I love meeting people from all over the world. And I love helping them. Everyone comes to you, everyone faces some sort of immigrant’s struggle. Sometimes you act as a lawyer, sometimes you act as a social worker, sometimes you act as a teacher and sometimes you just act as a friend. 

Challenge

The biggest challenge in the immigrant community is being able to work with the community and convince them that a lawyer is the appropriate person to handle a case.

A lot of the immigrant communities are used to a short cut.  Like you have someone offering services like teaching how to drive, taxes, electric bill payment and by the way, they do immigration also. The first challenge in the immigrant community is to say, look, the person that fixes your car might not be the right person to fix your sink, might not be the right person to do your asylum application.

Education

The first step, is education. I know this system. I have been doing it for 20years. It makes a difference sometimes if you are familiar with the big system of immigration and if you are also familiar with the local part of how we do things here, locally. A lot of times, I look at application someone has prepared and I know who prepared it and know the mistakes which they make.  I try to teach them not only to be honest with the system but be honest with the immigration lawyer who is trying to help.

For instance if someone tells me the situation that he is in, there are options. A lot of things come up in the system that they are used to not telling. They are so used to hiding. It is very challenging to work with the immigrant communities to get them to the place they need to be so they are legal or they are citizens or they are green card holders or they bring their children that belong to them. It’s devastating when I have people do DNA and it’s not their child.  

Trust

The trust and the ability to ask question is very important. It is not bad asking question. It is better than having clients that don’t ask questions. A lot of times, certain immigrant communities start a rumor and people go there. They don’t ask questions. People’s level of education sometimes really affects whether they ask questions or not. If we come from a communist system or a dictatorship where questioning was never thought, It is the job of a lawyer to teach or pull information. I always joke that I’m a product of communist parents and so I’m never late. I’m always five minutes earlier. It’s worth it doing the right thing. At some point, as lawyers we have to be ethically honest and abide by the rules that we have.

Hope

There are so many legal options for people to become legalize, for people to get green card, for people to become citizens. I think a lot of people go to community-based organizations, people go to church, people go to people they trust. But we have to be able to assess the situation and decide what will work best for a particular person and not a situation that works for someone else. Everyone has a set of experiences. As a lawyer I want to be able to know you, to know how I can help you or can I help. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I love what I’m doing. /TNA
Post Views: 1,514

Share!
Tweet

Deba Uwadiae

About the author

Related Posts

GM and LG Chem Invest $2.3B Toward an All-Electric Future in Ohio

 Will create more than 1,100 new jobs in a new, Ohio-based facility  Joint venture to drive cos ...

Early Voting for Nov. 5 election Begins in Ohio

Early voting for the November 5, 2019 general election will begin in Ohio State on Tuesday, Oct ...

ETSS opens Free English Class at East side Columbus

DHS raises concern over safety of Somali American children in Kenya

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Advertisement

0
Popular
Recent
Comments
  • U. S. 2020 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program opens Wednesday, Oct, 3

    October 1, 2018

    Feyi Tolani: An Advocate-In-Nursing

    November 1, 2018

    America’s Immigration Debate: The “Danger of Telling a Single Story.”

    February 13, 2017
  • March Madness creates Unthinkable Moments

    March 28, 2023

    Three first-time teams make 2023 Men’s Final ...

    March 27, 2023

    Pakistan Children’s Heart Foundation North America ...

    March 22, 2023
  • Good job, sir!

    January 12, 2021

    I'm call Haji I live the dadaab comp I am a refuge ...

    October 12, 2020

    Narayan vai, you spoke the truth about the importa ...

    September 6, 2020

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016

Contact Form


1+1=


American international journalist and author of "The Immigrant on Columbus Way: A True Life Guide To Settling Down As A New Immigrant To America "

Current/Past Issues

  • DailyNews
  • Hotels
  • Hotwire
  • Merchantic
  • Reference
  • Thesaurus
  • Urbanspoon

All used images are licensed by The New Americans Magazine.

Copyright © 2018 The New Americans Magazine | Layout and design by LiQiD inc