DWT Partner Helps Parking Garage Attendant's Family Achieve Citizenship

Biruk Birhanu was a parking garage attendant in DWT's Washington, D.C., office building. Every day he would see partner David Silverman drive in and out of the building for work, and the two would often exchange pleasantries. One day, Mr. Birhanu found the courage to ask where he could find help obtaining U.S citizenship for his wife and son, both from Ethiopia. David agreed to help the Birhanu family. Later that same year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducted an interview with Mr. Birhanu's wife, and in December 2017, she was sworn in as a U.S. citizen. But the process took a bit longer for Mr. Birhanu's son. USCIS granted him citizenship, conditioned on his being present in the Baltimore field office to exchange his residency card for a certificate of citizenship. However, the Birhanu family had temporarily returned to Ethiopia, and it was unclear whether USCIS would agree to postpone the appointment or if the process would have to begin anew. The family returned in August of this past year and David asked USCIS to reschedule. The agency agreed, and on October 31, Mr. Birhanu took his now-9-year- old son to Baltimore, where he became a U.S. citizen. David has since retired from the firm.