Shelley J. Kalita

I’m writing this review as I was granted my asylum yesterday, and I’m sharing my experience with Ms. Shelley Kalita here because this is the least I can do (P.S if you don’t want to read my full experience, the summary is “SHE IS AMAZING AND AN EXCELLENT LAWYER). I filed my case back in 2014 with an ...attorney in NJ. In 2018 I had to move to Chicago, and as I was settling, I had my asylum interview scheduled (I moved my case to Chicago office about a year before that when I moved to St. Louis). I was desperate to find an attorney on such a short notice, as I haven’t updated my case since I filed and my previous attorney in NJ wasn’t being helpful at all. I literally found out about her via Google as I don’t know anyone in Chicago at the time. I emailed her and we met after two days and we went over my case. She informed me that I need to update a lot of things and pretty much was like filing from the beginning (I only had my personal story at the time with few other statements). It was during the New Year holidays, and I really didn’t expect her to do much. She went above and beyond in helping me build a much stronger case in one week! I gathered a lot of papers and she also helped in the country research and then put a whole file together with her statement and everything dated and easy to follow and find (it was seriously impressive work for one week). At the time of my interview, she went with me to the office and we did some preparations couple days before that. The interview was kind of intense, so I followed up with her and she was very honest (no fake promises, which I highly appreciated). I only followed up with her one time after that and she got back to me after a day or two I think. After 8 months from my interview, I was out shopping and she called me to tell me that I was granted asylum...I really didn’t have words to thank her enough. She’s an excellent lawyer with a big heart.

I wanted to tell you how touched and impressed my wife and I both are of your management and resolution skills in our disastrous fight to have my wife Mariya let back into the US. I hired 2 incompetent lawyers over a 2-year period who took my money but never took responsibility, through sloppy work c...aused us 3 1/2 years of emotional hardship. Every time I called you answered my concerns and every issue and roadblock we ran into got immediate attention by you. This is not normal but the characteristics that separate you from too many lazy and incompetent lawyers. I can say thank you but that is never going to be enough. I want to thank you so much for your diligence and perseverance. You’re a unique and very special lawyer who I would recommend to anyone. I called her from Thailand one day. It was 9pm on Friday night in Chicago. She was out with friends at a concert in Chicago. She actually walked out of the concert and called me back in Thailand.