CHICAGO  Nada Alkhaddar spends her days at the Muslim Women Resource Center helping refugees and immigrants deal with government and commercial bureaucracies that can make life in the United States seem about as easy as computing the Alternative Minimum Tax.

“We help anyone, Muslims or Christians, from here or anywhere in the city,” Ms. Alkhaddar said as she guided an Eastern European man through a long questionnaire from a local bank. She adjusted her hijab and smiled as she worked in an office overlooking Devon and Western Avenues, an Indo-Pakistani neighborhood just north and west of downtown.

Despite her skills at navigating the obstacles immigrants face, Ms. Alkhaddar cannot seem to help the person closest to her and her three children  her husband, Ahmed Alrais  who is trying to get a green card.

Mr. Alrais came to the United States in the spring of 2008 after his life had been threatened for working as an interpreter for the United States Army in Iraq. Unable to find a job during the recession and without a green card, he returned in February to the country he had fled to work again for the Army through a private contractor.