Visit the HANA Center website for more information on all of their citizenship, immigration, housing & legal services: https://www.hanacenter.org/ihls

As a DOJ recognized organization, the HANA Center assist immigrants at varying stages of the immigration process, providing a wide array of application services: citizenship, adjustment of status, Consular processing, family petition, re-entry permit, and the smaller steps in between (passport, interpretation and “Green Card” renewal and replacement.

As a Housing and Urban Development-certified housing counseling agency, HANA Housing Services address barriers to affordable housing faced by Korean and other immigrants through one-on-one counseling, information, and referral services. We also host workshops in related areas. The goal of the program is to aid immigrants with limited English proficiency (LEP) to access affordable housing resources and understand tenant-landlord rights & fair housing law. HANA Housing Services help low to moderate income families remain in their homes via financial planning or even post-purchase education. Our housing program also assists LEP seniors in exploring housing options through public housing lists and aids in completing their senior housing applications.

HANA Center administers the IDHS’s Welcoming Center’s Housing and Utility Assistance Project, which was established to provide temporary emergency assistance to immigrants, refugees, and Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals who have experienced a COVID-19 related financial hardship between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020.

FREE LEGAL CLINIC – Our free legal clinic volunteer attorneys provide initial direction and advice in Spanish, Korean, and English. Immigrants have great difficulty in accessing or understanding the United States legal system. In addition to the significant monetary barrier for low income families, immigrants also face difficulties in securing legal services that are linguistically and culturally competent. They are often left with no option but self-representation, despite having no legal training or support. This situation too often results in individuals unable to communicate with court officers, and being unable to read and interpret court documents/notices. To address this base language barrier, they often bring friends or their children to provide translation. Nevertheless, because these translators are also unfamiliar with legal terminology, interpretations are often fraught with errors. While low-income immigrants have a great need for legal services (particularly in the areas of immigration, housing, credit and finance, domestic violence, and employment law), they are unable to meet these challenges.