Seeking Free Legal Advice about UK Visas

Today, we waited at a drop-in session for free legal advice about Darrick's visa. We were directed there by the Citizens Advice Bureau the day before. We walked two miles through the 'East LA of Leeds' to an unassuming brick building across from the Grill Inn and the Salon Fryjerski. We waited fourth in line behind individuals and groups of asylum seekers and immigrants facing deportation. We waited and waited, sweating together with 12 other uneasy people squeezed together in a room the size of a closet with windows stubbornly painted shut. We listened to a woman continuously answering the phone - asking for interpretors, sharing pieces of stories we all wondered if we should be hearing. At least three distinct languages were spoken closely within the confines of our jam packed limbo. Our worries about Darrick getting deported three weeks before planned seemed trivial as we were surrounding by the mounting tension and stifling heat of the waiting room. Everyone kept their eyes focused on their phones or their hands crossed in their laps as they waited for their names to be called...once in a while, we shuffled around the limited space to allow room for yet another person awaiting free legal advice... the movement helped keep the ants from climbing inside our shoes. I doubt I will ever see any of those people again, but I hope they all got what they needed - especially the man with the walker and the saddest eyes I have ever met with a passing glance.

We were given no concrete advice or words of encouragement before we left, but the level of worry wrinkled into each person's brow in that waiting room sent us off with a new perspective on our own minor visa problem.