**Updated Sept 29, 2025 due to new urgency

TLDR: I am applying for permanent residency (a green card) and am no longer able to legally work until I receive it. It costs roughly $6,500 (includes legal fees, application fees, medical fees) and I am seeking additional help to cover basic cost of living. Please see below for details

Six years ago, 18 years old and enthusiastic for change, I left my home country of Belize and my family to come to the US for school. That singular decision has led me to more than I could have ever imagined. For starters, I earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from accredited ABA programs (USF in Tampa and CSUN in Los Angeles). 

Moving to LA continues to prove itself as my best move yet. My graduate program thoroughly prepared me for work as a behavior analyst. It gave me the skills to excel at my job and make a meaningful impact on the lives of autistic kids and their families. 

I owe LA first and foremost, though, for the community and family it brought me. I met Tori a couple months after I moved here in 2021, both of us in need of a roommate in a new city. Together, we built an amazing friendship (and unknowingly, a beautiful foundation for a relationship), connected with new and old friends; four years later, our little shoebox apartment for two has evolved into a house full of love and laughs and pet hair and movie nights. Tori and I got married this summer, and we’ve since been undergoing the long process of applying for a green card so we can stay together, at our home in LA.

I have been here on an F-1 student visa, through which I was authorized to work in the US for one year after my program ended. My Employment Authorization Document (EAD) expired on September 8th, and I have since been out of employment and unable to legally work to make ends meet.

In order to work again, meet basic costs of living, and stay in LA I humbly ask for your urgent assistance to help with the below: 

1 $4,000 - immigration lawyer fees 

2 $2,000 - USCIS green card application filing 

3 ~$500 - medical exam (required as part of application)

4   ~$1000 to help cover cost of living (food, rent, etc) while the application is processed

I left Belize 18 and clueless, and now I am 24, still clueless, but wiser, and perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned is to lean on others for support when you need it. So that is what I’m doing – any support is so greatly appreciated by Tori and I. Thank you thank you thank you <3

**Frequently asked question: For those wondering, Applied Behavioral Analysis does NOT qualify for a 24 month extension for STEM degrees, despite the fact that ABA is a scientific methodology based in psychology.