Immigration has become a very personal issue for me. I've tried to get my wife and son to immigrate to the USA legally in 2014 after my daughter was born. We ran into a huge roadblock of my not being able to prove financially secure enough to support my family and being unable to find a joint sponsor who made enough. That attempt went down the drain. I spent a few more years teaching English in China. Then my grandmother's health appeared to me to be getting to the point where she wouldn't be around much longer and the economy in the USA appeared strong enough to offer me a enough job to begin the immigration process with me being the financial sponsor. About six months after returning to the USA, I filed the I-130 for my wife and son. A few weeks later my grandmother died.
It has now been a year since I began the immigration process for the second time. Lots has happened. It took six months for the petition to be approved. It then took nearly a month for USCIS to receive all the paperwork and begin the processes for setting up an interview before deciding on a visa. All the paperwork I originally submitted for the petition had to be resubmitted to USCIS along with documentation showing my ability to financially support my family. Around early June, USCIS told me that despite my making $16.50 an hour full-time, I did not meet the minimum financial requirements. Perhaps it was because I had not worked an entire year and the taxes I filed therefore did not meet those requirements but when you broke the numbers down, I did meet them. So we began the process of finding a financial sponsor. Many people were afraid. Why? Because they'd be locked into a ten year contract that if my wife and/or son took welfare that the sponsor would be responsible. About a month went by but finally someone did offer to become a joint sponsor. Ironically, it was a naturalized citizen ie, someone who had immigrated and became a US citizen. We submitted the paperwork during which time USCIS then told me the marriage certificate wasn't valid. After doing a lot of research, consulting with two immigration lawyers, and finally with USCIS agents in their call center I realized it didn't meet the requirements as outlined on the website
to meet reciprocity on translations of Chinese marriage certificates. To me, it ultimately looked like a way to force me into paying more money. I had gotten a translation of the Chinese marriage certificate through an online translation agency along with their guarantee of authenticity. The reciprocity agreements demanded by USCIS wanted the translation then given to an authority in China who would again verify the authenticity, producing another document. During this whole situation, the most ironic thing was that when submitting the marriage certificate translation for my wife it was approved but for my son it wasn't. And DHS felt it was good enough for approval of the I-130 petition.
We did finally have all documents approved about two weeks ago (around August 14, 2019). They'll now begin scheduling of an interview at the Embassy in Moscow. Since we heard that the documents have all qualified though, nothing else has been communicated. Everything takes weeks. When you've been apart from your family for 18 months, days tear you apart. Originally I marked days off on the calendar thinking to myself we were one day closer to being together. Now I have marked days off thinking it is one more day apart. A huge shift in thinking even if it seems so subtle a difference. Before I thought it was only a matter of time until we would be together. Now, I think what else could happen to slow the process down and possibly even make it so that we cannot be together?
So what does this all have to do with emotions? Immigration is a very emotional issue. I've given you my story in part to understand why it effects me emotionally. My wife and son have been separated from my daughter and me for 18 months and going. My wife and I have been married for 8 years, 7 of them spent in China. We've established a life together. We've had a child together. We've been raising a family together. Why can't there be a legal process which allows us to continue doing those things together as the proceedings continue? It's inhumane absurdities such as this which causes people who have less to loose to take more drastic measures: immigrate illegally. Through this whole process, I have to admit I wish I had done things differently, I wish that I had taken advantage of the more gray areas so that we have not had to be apart for so long. Having experiences like this makes one loose faith in their government, and the society in which one lives.
Immigration is a sensitive topic which doesn't get enough discussion because I believe it is one which highlights many of the flaws within the USA. We claim to be a country of liberty and justice. There has been nothing liberating or just about this process. When going through immigration proceedings, what is just about keeping a family apart for 18 months? The system needs to be balanced and fair. In following articles, I intend to discuss some of the issues with the immigration system, and how politics unfairly uses those issues to prey on us rhetorically .
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