Zakaria Becomes a U.S. Citizen!

In 2010, Zakaria Abdulrazek arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Sudan  and was resettled through LSG. His resettlement story can be read on our blog. Now, Zak works as a case manager in LSG's Refugee and Immigration Services department. Zak recently became a U.S. citizen, a goal he's been working towards for five years.

On July 28, 2015, I became a U.S. citizen. Becoming a U.S. citizen is a huge step for me and a big achievement. I've been looking forward to this for the past five years. Besides being able to vote, I will get to travel freely and I am looking forward to going back home to Sudan to visit my mother.

In March 2015, three months shy of my 5th anniversary in the U.S., I applied for U.S. citizenship through LSG's Immigration Services. The process was quite easy, but I was worried about the interview. I studied all 100 of the practice questions about U.S. history and I found they were not as hard as I thought they would be. I memorized them all! During the interview, I was only asked six questions and I answered all of them correctly. My family in Sudan were the first ones to know that they now have a U.S. citizen in the family, and they were very happy. I celebrated with friends.

On Tuesday, August 28, exactly one month after I became an American, my LSG family surprised me with a party to celebrate my citizenship. It was totally unexpected and I am very happy that I have coworkers who care and took the time to celebrate with me. I've been a case manager for almost one year now, and I like being a member of the LSG family. As a case manager, I get to welcome "future U.S. citizens" on a daily basis. I love that I get to help refugees start a new life as I did, here in the U.S.

LSG thanks Zakaria for all his work to welcome refugees and congratulates him on receiving his citizenship!