My name is Darrell Andrade. I am currently married with three kids. I currently live in Streamwood, Illinois and I am a permanent resident. I came in and at the age of 82 the United States of America in 1997 is a conditional resident due to my mom being married to a US citizen. They ultimately applied for me to get a conditional residence here in the United States. I was a conditional resident for two years and after that two years I had to apply to be a permanent resident. Now after two years my paperwork was not filled out correctly so I ultimately lost my permanent residency at that time therefore ultimately putting me into ice custody. My removal case lasted from 2008 to 2015. In 2014 I was brought into immigration custody and it lasted about eight months in McHenry county jail. It was a horrible feeling on December 17, 2014. I remember a six o’clock in the morning knock on the door and I didn’t think anything of it. I opened the door and it was immigration they asked me for my permanent residency card. I didn’t have it and they told me that I had to be put in custody. At that time it was very hard it’s about eight days before Christmas. I have three kids and it was the most horrible feeling ever just being taken away from them not knowing what was going on at the same time now in immigration custody was so much stress due to the fact that just thinking about my wife raising my kids on her own and not having my support there.
It was just I felt like I had no hope of being in there with other people that were being deported the first day. I was taken there by this guy who had just had his final court date and he gave me a business card of Mario Godoy law offices and you know I felt like that was a sign so I had my wife give him a call and eight months later he resolved the case for me. Previous attorneys I would give them a call and you know try to talk to them and they wouldn’t just give me no answers. Mario made me feel like I was important, made me feel like they were working on my case and I loved every part of that experience with Mario. That just felt like he had my back. It was just amazing that they finally got to see it and to hear my family members speak about me and knowing I had all that support it felt great but even if it felt better when the judge gave me the approval for my conditions to be removed. So I was just ultimately happy. I think that was the happiest day of my life right there knowing that I can go back home to my family. I would definitely recommend Godoy law offices for their work, attention to detail and you know now I feel like they’re part of my family because I couldn’t have done it without them.
