Embrace the journey of skilled refugees and non-refugees striving to legally enter America, secure employment, and obtain a visa. Embrace their drive, resilience, and contribution to society.

After over thirty years as a senior legal assistant at the law firms of Kera & Graubard and Mark S. Mercado in NYC facilitating work visas and permanent residency for thousands of families from foreign countries including many from South Korea, Benjamin H. Kim wanted to address the dire needs of the healthcare industry, especially caregiving for the elderly in urban areas as well as the unfortunate plight of refugees around the world trying to survive and rebuild their lives. What if we could solve these two major problems at the same time? That is how our nonprofit, American Volunteer Center, was born. In April 2021, Benjamin established AVC with attorney Jin-Soo Jeon and Certified Public Accountant David S. Shin to help refugees around the world survive and resettle in the United States.

As the average lifespan of old adults in the US increases, the number of elderly patients also continues to increase. As a result, there is also a dire need for certified caregivers to take on the increasing number of elderly patients. According to a Report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US will need 4 million more healthcare workers (90% of them for Entry-level Healthcare Workers like Certified Caregiver and Certified Nursing Assistant) within the next 3 years.

AVC is firmly rooted in the immigrant story as Mr. Kim himself is an immigrant who legally immigrated to New York in 1985 from South Korea to seek greater opportunities for his family and children. He benefited from those who helped him in this journey including the law offices that gave him the opportunity to become an expert in immigration law and become a paralegal servicing mostly Korean-speaking clients. AVC is an effort to extend this appreciation and pay it forward.