Hey, My name is Margaret Wong and I'm an immigration lawyer and I came to America in '69. I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I went to an all girls, religious school since kindergarten. I came in '69 with-- right at the height of the Vietnam era with the kids in America against the Vietnam War, but never in my wildest dreams that I see what I'm doing now because in '77 immigration work is not very hot. It's very much like criminal work, very much like-- it's nothing compared to estate, tax, corporate where all lawyers want to work.
I turned out to be a great lawyer. That's my passion. That's my love. But things really have changed. Years ago the same people don't use the same lawyers like Middle East people they don't like to go to Australian lawyer or Arabic lawyer because they their own people are not that people are not that powerful in America. But now things have changed. Because I speak fluent Chinese, we have a lot of Chinese clients coming to us because they just felt I'm one of them.
Also, because I speak the language of a foreign-born because I'm one. I came. I struggled. I was a chambermaid. I was a waitress. I was-- you name it, I've done it. I cleaned toilets. I've done-- I'm also the first one-- normally the first one who comes into this office, turn on the light. I'm normally the last one to leave the office, turn off the light. It's really a lot of fun. Some highlights of this job. When we first started out-- because in those day, there's no 245-I. There's no three or ten year bar. So people have no papers, they could still get the green card in America. But now they can't. They have to go back to home country if they were not admitted or inspected or paroled.
To be a great lawyer you really have to know today's world. You can't always say, "yeah, but 30 years ago has happened." Immigration law changes by the day, by the minute, by the hour. The Morton Memo who came out in November of year 2011, 2012. Now he retired and resigned. Homeland Security had mister-- Miss Janet Napolitano also resigned. Now we're working with a new head. These are things that we have to keep up, keep up, keep up.
By: Margaret Wong
