Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday in November. This year, Thanksgiving will be on November 23. Thanksgiving originates in the 1600’s around the time the Pilgrims first came to the New World. The winter of 1620 was very hard for the Pilgrims and many felt they would not be able to survive it. With the help of the Native Americans, the Pilgrims had enough food and supplies for the harsh winter and came out of it relatively well. As a result of this and the plentiful harvest, the Pilgrims celebrated a Harvest festival with the Native Americans. The point of the Harvest festival was to give thanks for the plentiful harvest and their survival.

Since then and during the early years of the America, Thanksgiving was celebrated each year, on days set by Governors, Congress, Presidents, or others in power. By 1817, Thanksgiving Day became an annual custom in New York State and many other states slowly followed suit. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday to be celebrated on the final Thursday of November.

From 1939 until 1941, there was much dispute surrounding when Thanksgiving should be held. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared Thanksgiving will be held on the next-to-last Thursday in November as opposed to the last Thursday in November. This caused confusion and half the states celebrated it on the last Thursday and the other half on the next to last Thursday. In 1941, Congress decided that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated by everyone in the United States and many traditions are associated with it. On Thanksgiving Day, families gather together in one central location to have a big feast with each other. Moreover, people are extra grateful for all the things they have in this world. Another tradition is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC (Our NYC offices, located across street from the Macy’s, overlook this Thanksgiving Parade). On Thanksgiving, many cities around the U.S. have parades with floats and balloons to commemorate the day. Lastly, watching American Football and even playing American Football with family and friends has come to be a tradition on Thanksgiving Day as well.

Zhang & Associates would like to extend Thanksgiving wishes to all of its clients and potential clients. Since 1996, thousands of clients have retained us to get their green cards through NIW, EB1, PERM, and other categories. Immigration process is long, and for some people, it is even painful. But all of our clients have been very supportive and considerate in this process. Our attorneys share a client’s every moment of pain, concern, and eventually happiness. The best reward we get from our work is to see our clients realize their first American dream when their cases are approved. We treasure all the compliments and appreciations coming from our clients, which has remained our central source of support in our work. In addition, our clients keep recommending their friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to us. Most of our new clients come from referrals. We are thankful for all of this. In 1996, we were just a one-person and one-office firm. Now, we have grown to one of the biggest immigration law firms with 13 talented attorneys and three offices at Houston, Chicago, and New York City. We know this could never happen without our clients’ kindest support.

On Thanksgiving Day, our gratitude and thanks go to our past and current clients. Thanks to their trust, support and businesses, we are what we are today. We sincerely hope that all our clients American Dreams have the same happy ending and we work hard for it.