Love is stronger than anything else...
"This is my wife, and I miss her. Why ? Because she is living in the US, but she is Jamaican. Since I am french, I only have 3 months maximum allowed in US. I can come back in France then go back in US, but if I do that too often they might refuse my entry. And right now, I am in France..."
The Story
She, as Jamaican, arrived in the country with her mom when she was 10. Her mom tried to get her a green card thanks to the grand parents, but the application failed. Instead of sending the kid back to Jamaica, she kept her in US, and my wife became illegal. Becoming illegal in US is worst than entering without any papers. Despite this, being an excellent student, my wife got a worth $200k school grant to go study in a prestigious Californian university and finished major of her promotion. (Yes that sounds crazy that they never gave her a greencard or citizenship after that right ? It's like "we give you 200k because you are so good, but we keep you illegal as a criminal because you enter the country at the age of 10 with your mom and stayed...")
Obama
She stayed illegal until Obama became president. He released a new statut for children in this situation called DACA. This statut gives my wife a temporary resident card and a social number. She has to renew it every 2 years and pay a fee for that. (must be a good business...)
This DACA does not allow her to travel outside the county though. To travel, she has to apply for a document called "parole advance", given by the US immigration under certain conditions. That document allows her to re-enter US when her trip is done. To apply for that "parole advance", she has to pay $500, and have a valid reason to travel. This reason can only be "a school program abroad", or "a company hiring her in another country", that's it.
Trump
A few days ago the Trump administration decided (under the pressure of the republicans that were against the DACA program), to ask the congress to find a replacement for DACA within the 6 next months. If the senators don't find anything to replace DACA, Trump will cancel this statut and my wife will become illegal again like the few millions of other under the same statut.
Our Life
As a fashion designer she needed to go source fabric for her next collection in Thailand. She had found a company ready to write her a letter that could work for her to apply for a Parole advance to travel in Asia. But with the recent decision, all the DACA statuts are frozen and no one is able to apply for parole advance during the 6 next months. This is bad because that could harm her brand new business which is just taking off.
We love each other, and we decided to marry in NYC on june 28th 2017. Also in a few years she will become french so we don't have any problem anymore. But even to come with me in France with me, she need a long term visa to enter the Schengen zone, and guess what the French consulate asks to deliver such a visa ? : A PAROLE ADVANCE !
Means that now, even having our wedding certificate valid in France, we have currently NO solution to bring her back with me even if she decided to completely forget about her life in the US..."*
Conclusion
This shows on how lucky you are depending on where you were born on the planet and which passport you have. As french I never realized this, but if you are born in Jamaica, Bangladesh, Philippines and many other countries, you are just almost like a prisoner with tons of paper to do and luck to have to be able to travel.
I HATE the fact that the establishment one day decided who could or could not walk on planet Earth. This is our Home and everyone should be authorized to travel anywhere without restrictions.
But we don't care, we love each other so much we will find a way, I am trying to build an O1 visa case (artist) that would potentially give me 3 years of travelling to US without any restrictions. But this visa is hard enough to get.
Location :
Governor Island / NYC
Specs :
- Sony A7RII
- Nikon 35mm f2,8
- 1/500s ISO 100
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Governments have far too much power over people's lives. My son and his fiancee just went through the whole fiancee visa process, and after a year she is finally approved and has a plane ticket to come to Chicago next month. I wish both of you all the best and hope you can somehow get it sorted soon. tip!
Thanks so much for your support, hopefully we will find a way yes :)
I can help you with all of this.
PM me on chat.
Thanks a lot will try to reach you when back home !
Ok!
Blessings~*~
Djeeeezus....
Wish you all success with obtaining your visa...
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Thanks so much :)
Yes, love is stronger than all the obstacles. I wish you can make it and be together with no restrictions!
Thanks so much, I really hope we will be able too.
I could write a book about the hassles I had until I became a citizen 9 years ago. I did come here legally and had a green card, but immigration is not kind to anyone regardless of country of origin. I hope and pray that you will be together soon! :-(
Thanks for the support, we will be together nothing can't stop us. :)
That's what love is all about! She is beautiful! Talking about government hassles, I have three citizenships - British, Canadian and American. I usually keep my British passport up to date and use it for traveling to Europe, then use my American one for returning here. I thought it would be standard procedure as usual when renewing by UK passport, but no! They will not renew it until I renew my Canadian passport (which I no loner need or use) because it is in my former name, and the EU passed a law requiring all past documents to be in the same name! It expired in the 1980's!!! Not as frustrating as your situation I know, but I do understand your annoyance with government red tape! All the best to you both!
Thanks ! Wow That is unconventional situation of yours. But then easily understandable that people having the chance to have several passports are lucky. (as long as they renew their documents on time ;)
You have beautiful wife.
Congatulation
I am so sorry about how this is affecting you. I live not to far from NYC if she ever needs to reach out. I work to help women artists (she must be a fashion artist to start her own company!😊) What is going on in the US is terrible and making lives so difficult
Hello @kirrakimbell ! Thanks, she has already started her company, it's called Fringe and Epaulette. I made the website for her : http://www.fandecouture.com
The worst is that she is starting to take off with business and the whole situation can lead to her loosing opportunities, plus the fact that we can't really stay together... Thanks so much for the support, what is your association doing ? :) is it https://mothermuseco.com/ ?
Yes that's the site! We are working to share lots of women's stories (.we are working with many more artists this fall it's a new thing so it's taken me some time to build up) but it's been amazing to learn the stories of so many different women and get to hear about life from their perspective
Oh I see, that is interesting, I will tell her to contact you maybe you can publish her story too :)
Wonderful! I would love to hear it, I'm sure she has so much to share 😊
I told her !
Hi @eyegasm! @melinda010100 is sending you 0.1 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
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