Two years in exile for a US citizen who chooses to marry an immigrant that has entered on a J1 visa with a two year restriction. This was the final outcome for my wife. In 2001, I entered the USA on a J1 visa to work at a university in the USA. About a year later, I met Valerie and fell in love.
We consulted an immigration attorney about overturning the J1 visa and after looking at my paperwork convinced us that we had a strong case. The UK is not a country on the skill lists, there are no subject areas that are required by the UK and even though my first year indicated that I had received state funds (and not the second and third years), this was done in error as my pay remained the same over the three year contract. The attorney’s main line of argument was that the funds were never specifically designated for me and according to my IAP66 papers. Our attorney advised us to marry soon which we did in March so that we could begin processing the paperwork.
Within the two years that we tried to appeal our decision, my wife graduated from college with an Associate degree in nursing while I had considerable difficulty in obtaining employment in my field having only a one year work permit. Meanwhile, we spent plenty of money on attorney fees and existed on the poverty threshold line. The US immigration authorities requested that we attend an interview in which we had to prove that we were married based on providing a certificate of marriage and also evidence of co-habitation. Even though the immigration authorities acknowledged that we were married, my appeal for the hardship case on the J1 visa waiver was finally denied and I was ordered to leave the country within 30 days or risk deportation. Ironically once the immigration authorities were satisfied we were married, my wife was then given the choice to either live married life as a separated couple or married together outside the borders of the USA.
I applied for jobs abroad and was offered a position in Ireland and after reviewing the apparently uncomplicated immigration procedures for my wife, I accepted the position. However on arrival in Ireland, when my wife tried to register as a resident at the city police department, we were told that she had to apply for an EU card from the Department of Justice in Dublin. After eight months, my wife received a denial of her application for an EU card but was informed that she could apply for a Stamp 4 that would entitle her to work for the period of my contract in Ireland. It is perhaps worthwhile to note that my wife’s nursing qualification is unacceptable here and she would require an additional two years of schooling costing about 20,000 Euros per year.
In the six months since we arrived in Ireland, my wife was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, she has found that she is three months pregnant, and her mother was readmitted to hospital for heart surgery. Valerie feels very isolated, unstable about our future, and despite attempts to remain upbeat sometimes becomes depressed.
We decided to marry and keep together through difficult times but it seems that the governments of this world are placing every possible obstacle in our way perhaps in the hope that we would eventually separate and live our lives in our own countries with a discriminatory attitude towards foreigners. I was always been under the impression that the heads of states of the USA and the UK were concerned about the family values but it seems that the actions of immigration policy are to the contrary.
How many additional hardships are we to face? After all, neither my wife nor I were born into middle class families. Both of us were brought up by single parents in poverty whose fathers were tragically killed during our childhoods. In consequence, both of us have endured major personal strife’s in our lives which neither of us wishes to divulge in order to protect the ones we love. All we hope for in our future is the opportunity to live together as a family in a place we can call home, for both of us to have the opportunity to contribute to the family income when necessary so we can provide all the wonderful things for our child.
Many immigrants coming to work in the USA come on J1 visas. Should they happen to become involved in a relationship with an American citizen then it is the American citizen who will be forced to relocate out of their homeland. After all, as the saying goes love knows no bounds and no matter what preconditions the government imposes on legal immigrants coming to USA, it is evitable that this will happen. Does this mean that my wife’s rights as American citizen are to be denied because she married an immigrant on a J1 visa (see the articles from the Human Rights below)? Where is the lady with the flaming torch to show my wife the way home after emigrating from her homeland, leaving behind her family and opportunity for career to face an uncertain future?
No comments:
Post a Comment