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#usimmigrationobstacles Yesterday afternoon I got a surprise phone call from one of our readers, Djenane C. Santos. She had just got the pleasant surprise of her life. US immigration authorities had approved her I-360 visa for religious workers. Her Green Card comes quickly.
As Elena, Mandy Findlater, Nancy Dai, and Djenane Santos know, anyone seeking to immigrate to this country, get a work permit, Green Card, and US citizenship is in for a trip through a convoluted and frustrating bureaucratic maze.
Many people assume that Elena had an easy ride to citizenship because she had an American husband. This is not accurate. When we prepared Elena's application for US citizenship, I had to assemble a massive number of documents including years of bank statements, utility bills, credit card statements, house documents, car documents, tax returns, and a long list of other documents. I was up 48 hours with no sleep getting these documents together. The final collection of documents filled a box like one gets when they order several reams of computer paper. The object of the exercise was to prove to the authorities that we were a real couple and not a fake marriage. Did the bureaucrats read this big accumulation of documents? I doubt it.
Djenane came back to the US in January of 2015. She encountered one obstacle after another in her quest for permanent US papers. A remarkable man came into her life-Pastor Jonathan Markham. He had obtained US permanent residence when a religious group sponsored him and gave him a job that qualified him as a religious worker. Jonathan offered Djenane a job and sponsorship.
Three of us who have known Djenane for decades wrote letters of reference for her. Immigration officers came out and interviewed Jonathan. They looked carefully at her employment and demanded proof of her monthly salary.
Djenane's application was approved. All sorts of onerous conditions were attached to the approval. She had to study for a postgraduate degree in theology at her own expense. There were many more conditions.
I have been proud to know our reader Mandy Findlater since 1999. She arrived in this country from Zimbabwe with two suitcases, $10,000 US in cash, and a tourist visa. She has a long ride of almost a decade to be sworn in as a US citizen. There were many setbacks and disappointments.
Nancy Dai left a life of comfort in Shanghai, China to come to California to be with her mother. She had to start over from scratch. She had to get new college degrees and live through years of humble economic circumstances, She had to endure the ride through the immigration bureaucracy. Nancy has emerged at the other end with a home of her own and a job as a software engineer.
We constantly hear complaints about this country. We need to step back and look at the hard sacrifices that people make to have a life here. There is a massive line of people out there waiting to get into this country.