Client Story

The Portillo family came to Just Neighbors in 2005 for help.  For many years the mother and three children had been severely beaten by the husband (the children's father).  The abuse started at the beginning of the marriage and continued in Mrs. Portillo's home country, despite her efforts to have her husband arrested by the police.  After many years of abuse, the family came to the U.S. to escape only to find a few months later that the husband/father had followed them here.  He continued to threaten and abuse them in the U.S.  Luckily, our police defend victims of domestic violence and the abuser was arrested in Arlington Co, VA for multiple crimes, prosecuted, and deported.

While the family was finally free of their tormentor, they had no legal status in the U.S.  In 2005, Just Neighbors was able to apply for all family members to get an interim U Visa.  Each year, the family would come to our office to renew their work permits and continue this "interim" status while we waited for Congress to write the actual regulations for the U Visa.  Once these regulations were finally published in September 2007, we helped each family member apply for a permanent U Visa, which was granted in April of this year!

However, the U Visa law allows for those who have been lawfully present in the U.S. with U Visa status for three years to apply for residency.  Since the family had had the interim U Visa for a number of years, they each were immediately eligible to apply for their green cards!  So Just Neighbors once again had the family come in and helped them apply for their residency.  Over the years, this family has come into our offices at least a dozen times and worked with several of our attorneys.  We have gotten to know and love them well.  You can imagine how delighted our attorney was to call the Portillo family this week and tell them their green card (residency) applications had been approved!  We look forward to helping each one of them apply for their citizenship in five years.

Strategic Plan

Just Neighbors is excited to present our Strategic Plan for the next one-two years.  Through a Management Assistance Program grant from the Meyer Foundation, Just Neighbors hired Katherine Morrison as a consultant this past spring to assist with board development and strategic planning.  She interviewed various stakeholders, including former clients, volunteers, staff, individual donors, and funders to learn what the organization was doing well and where we could improve.  It was reassuring to hear consistent feedback that Just Neighbors is providing a critical service to the community and that we should continue to focus our efforts on immigration legal services.  Therefore, the strategic plan that the board adopted concentrates on goals that will enable Just Neighbors to continue carrying out this work more efficiently throughout the community.  See the strategic plan at www.justneighbors.org. 

Volunteer of the Month

Get Involved

We are looking for volunteers to assist with written translation from Spanish to English.  This can be done via email.  We have a wonderful group of volunteer translators who are currently inundated with projects.  The recent surge in our domestic violence cases has necessitated many time-sensitive translations.  These translations are not for the faint of heart, as they are often graphic testimonials by women of the abuse they suffered that we need to submit to Immigration.  If you are available to help, please email Rob Rutland-Brown at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Thank you!

For the second consecutive year, Just Neighbors will be participating in the Gifts that Give Hope alternative gift fair hosted by the Giving Circle of HOPE on Saturday, December 12th.  The fair will be held at Truro Church, 10520 Main St, Fairfax, VA 22030, from 10am to 4pm.  This is a unique opportunity for shoppers to select meaningful gifts from over twenty local nonprofits that give help and hope to others. Cash and checks will be accepted (no credit cards) for both tangible and virtual gifts.  We hope to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who has responded generously to our annual campaign, which started this month.  Many of you receive our emails but are not on our mailing list.  Please consider making an on-line tax-deductible donation to Just Neighbors here so that we may continue to provide critical immigration legal services in the community.  Our call volume of immigrants in the area needing help has nearly doubled this year, and your gift will help us respond to this growing need.  Thank you!