Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Legal Immigration
I m back and am attaching a paper that details the entire campaign to get Ros her visa.
Legal
Immigration Costly And Difficult But Worth It
My
wife and I met on our church website LDSsingles.com on August 11,
2011. Some people might call it dumb luck that I forgot to set the
parameters of my search and it went world wide, I call it the
blessing that has made the happiest man alive. Rosmery answered my
invitation and we began our relationship by e-mail, which quickly
turned to two phone calls a day. Then December 8, 2011 I flew to the
Dominican Republic and on December 11th I proposed and
Rosmery accepted. That was the only part of the immigration process
that was easy, from then on it became costly and stressful.
On
my return to Omaha I hired an immigration attorney based on his easy
payment plan to represent us in securing a Fiance` Visa. This turned
out to be a mistake as in July 2012, 7 months after I hired him I was
notified by the Nebraska Bar Association that this attorney had taken
money from 435 clients and had done no work for any of them. His
practice was siezed and an attorney was assigned to straighten out
the mess. I borrowed $2750 and hired another Immigration attorney, he
required retainer and fees in advance. We then started the process
over. Even though the fraudulent attorney did no work, I had to
secure all kinds of documentation to be sent with the application
proving I was an American citizen, financially able to support a wife
if the visa was granted, proof of employment, Income tax returns,
certified birth certificate, proof that I had visited my Fiance` in
her country, and divorce documents. Interesting thing about divorce,
even though a divorced spouse is deaseced they still want divorce
papers submitted. Go figure! I worked many hours securing copies ,
originals and certified copies of many documents which I turned in to
the fraudulent attorney and were in abeyence with the Appointed
attorney. It took about 45 days to get my salvaged file from the
appointed attorney and she was able to find $750 dollars that I had
receipts for. A welcome surprise.
Shortly
after I turned the salvaged file over to the new attorney, he was
able to file a new application for a Fiance` Visa I believe in mid
November 2012. We are now at 11 months and $4700. We were given a
website where we could check on the status of our application. The
wonderful answers we received were, Your application was received in
Houston. Your application was forwarded to Los Angeles, Your
application was received in Los Angeles. In March 2013 we are
contacted by the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo instructing us to go
to their web site and fill out more forms. Our attorney helps us with
these forms. A couple of weeks later Rosmery gets a notice from the
U.S. Embassy advising her that se has an appointment for an interview
in 7 days. Before the interview she must get a $300 physical in the
authorized hospital in Santo Domingo. 150 miles from her home in
Santiago. I sent her $500 to cover the exam and travel. She also was
instructed to get a criminal background check with her local police
in Santiago. I had to scamble to make plane and hotel arrangements
for me to go to Santo Domingo as well, another $2000. We are now at
$7100.
We
were blest at the interview at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo.
After a 6 am line up to get in the Embassy, having to go off site to
get a form prepared that I forgot, and a 7 hour wait, we were sure
the interviewer was a member of our LDS church as he was well aware
of the doctrines of our church. My wife had a brilliant answer for
what could have been a problematic question. The interviewer asked,
“Why are you willing to marry a man 40 years older than yourself,
arn't you afraid he will die soon?” Rosmery replied, “Younger men
than him die everyday, so I don't think about it.
1.
In
about a week we receive notice that Her visa was approved. Rosmery
had never flown before so I made arrangements for her to fly from
Santo Domingo so she can fly non stop to Atlanta , then non stop to
Omaha only one transfer point to deal with. I sent Rosmery $700 for
everything she needed to wrap up and pack up to leave the Dominican
Republic. Her plane ticket was $880 We are at $8680 now. Rosmery
arrived in Omaha on May 8, 2013, and we were married 2 days later on
may 10, 2013.
The
next step was to apply for change of status to permenant residency
for Rosmery. Once again there is a laundry list of things that need
to be done before we can even apply. We meet with our attorney and he
briefs us on what will be required, then asks for $2750 in advance. I
said, “If you can't apply till we get get all this documentation
collected why can't I pay when your ready to file?” He said that
was unacceptable and that he no longer wished to represent us.
I
need digress for a moment to address the duplicity in the immigration
program that needs to be eliminated. The State Department handles
Visas, the USCIS handles Change of status and citizenship. Might work
if they cooperated, but they don't. We had to provide the same
information for the change of status as we did for the Fiance` Visa.
All they have to do is forward the file from State to USCIS. If it
passed State all USCIS has to do is verify and require new
information only for changes.
We
jump through all the hoops again, and again we wait. Now comes the
worth it part. In January 2015 while we are waiting the Lord blesses
us with a magnificent daughter, who brightens our life everyday.
Finally on July 8, 2015 we have our interview for change of status to
permenant residentcy for Rosmery. Laden with a cache of documents
dutifully duplicated with the addition of our marriage certificate
and Our Daughters birth certificate, all certified of course, we
enter the inter view. With our daughter charming everyone even a
blind man could see we are a solid loving family. Out of the whole
cache of documents the agent only asked for our passports, our ID,
and our daughters birth certificate. 5 minutes into the interview our
attorney said our application would be approved. On July 31st
we received notice that Rosmery was now a legal permenant resident of
the USA. In 3 years she can apply for U.S. Citizenship.
The
$12,000 is nothing compared to the happiness and joy we have everyday
as we watch our little angel grow and build a wonderful happy life
together here in Omaha. The system is far from perfect, or even good,
but it works. If those Presidential hopefuls now chatting about
illegal Immigration, will think about Legal Immigration, maybe they
will simplify the process so it can be done like my grandfather Louie
Tomoser did back in 1907. Grandpa Louie as a lad of 15, fresh out of
a tailor apprenticeship in Hungary, rode a train from Ajka, Hungary
to Fiore, Italy, where for $28.00 he booked passage on the steamer
Carolina to New York, walked through Ellis Island, and caught up with
his parents in Manhatten.
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