Boy Meets Girl

(posted 16-Feb-2014)

Happy Valentine’s Day weekend to all of my readers.  Today I wanted to share with you a love story that is one of my personal favorites, for obvious reasons.  This romantic “boy-meets-girl” tale involves two of my former clients.  I’m very proud to have assisted both in obtaining Permanent Residency and one in obtaining U.S. Citizenship a few years ago.  To protect their privacy, I’ve changed their names and some minor details regarding their story, but I promise you that the basic elements of their inspiring and heartwarming journey to find true love won’t be lost on you.  The story of Anna and Allen takes place more than 10 years ago in the town of Reno, an All-American city in Nevada neighboring the California border and the renowned winter vacation destination of Lake Tahoe.

Allen was born in the mid-1970s in the Middle Eastern country of Lebanon.  At the time of his birth, Allen’s homeland was in the middle of a 16-year long civil war that claimed over 100,000 casualties and displaced nearly 1 million Lebanese citizens.  Allen had humble beginnings: his mother was a homemaker, and his father was a self-made businessman scratching together a modest living for the family.  Allen was a good student, and in his mid-20s he decided to immigrate to the United States on an F-1 student visa to take advantage of the greater quality and quantity of educational opportunities afforded him in comparison to Lebanon.  After obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in Lebanon, he traveled to America to obtain his Master’s Degree in Materials Science & Metallurgical Engineering in Nevada.  Upon finishing his graduate program, Allen was hired by a major oil company, who assigned him to work at their refinery in Reno, Nevada.

One night after a long day shift at the refinery, Allen went to a local restaurant for a late dinner with a friend.  At the restaurant, Allen’s attention was immediately drawn to a beautiful waitress serving tables far across the room.  After a short discussion with his friend, Allen approached the waitress and struck up a conversation without hesitation.  The name of the waitress was Anna, and she herself was an immigrant to the U.S. – here from Poland on a student visa, on a work-study program.

Anna was indeed an eye-catching beauty on the outside, but like Allen she just so happened to be much more than meets the eye underneath the surface.  In Poland, she had earned her own graduate degree from a prestigious law school, and she decided to come to the U.S. for some fun and adventure before she planned to settle down in her lucrative legal career in Poland.  She and her female friend had applied to do a work-study program related to law research, but when they came to the U.S. they discovered that their program superiors had instead assigned them to waitressing and house-cleaning jobs in Reno.  Because this was certainly not what Anna had expected, her desire was to finish the minimum term of her contract and learn as much as she could about the English language and American culture, then return to Poland to pursue her legal career.  Little did Anna – a blond-haired, blue-eyed, petite Polish firecracker – know that this undesirable job would cause her to remain in the U.S. forever, on account of connecting her to Allen – that successful, dark-haired, olive-skinned stranger who had confidently approached her during her Thursday evening shift.

Allen and Anna talked, laughed, exchanged phone numbers that night, and soon thereafter began dating.  In their home countries, each of them had been a product of starkly different upbringings.  She’d grown up in a government system of communism, where her family had to ration food to survive; he’d been raised in a country where constant war made each new day precious and celebrated, so everyone lived life richly and extravagantly as if there was no tomorrow.  However, here in America Allen and Anna found that they had plenty in common with each other, due to their desire to emigrate from their homelands to pursue a better life for themselves in America, in addition to their shared immigrant experiences in their adopted country. 

Fast forward a decade later to today: Allen and Anna are happily married, have bought a house together here in Southern California, and have given birth to their first child, a son.  With the assistance of our firm, Allen successfully completed an N-400 application and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in December 2009.  Consequently, Allen filed I-130 and I-485 applications on Anna’s behalf so she could obtain permanent residence in the U.S. through marriage; Anna’s petition was successfully approved by the USCIS in November 2010. 

I’m so proud of how far Anna and Allen have come both on their own and as a couple to achieve the quintessential American Dream.  It is certainly not an easy decision to leave your home country and be so far away from family, friends, and the only home you’ve known for more than half of your life.  However, Anna did not hesitate to make such a decision in the name of love, and Allen’s choice to plant his roots in California was guided by love.  As the saying goes, "Love conquers all!" I am happy to count Anna and Allen not only as former clients but also as close friends of mine.  I admire their determination, their love for each other, and their desire to continue reaching farther and higher to secure better lives for themselves and their son in America.

As of this blog post, the Law Offices of Ellaine Loreto, PC has successfully processed hundreds of cases involving sponsorship of fiance(e)s and spouses towards legal resident status or citizenship.  We look forward to coming across our next "Anna and Allen" and assisting them with their immigration legal issues in order to bring them closer to finding happiness and true love.

 

90 Day Fiancé

(posted 24-Mar-2014)

 

It's officially springtime, and “Love is in the air!” as the saying goes.  The folks at cable channel TLC would most certainly agree with this sentiment, as they’ve launched an intriguing new show called 90 Day Fiancé. Here’s the show’s description from the TLC website:

“90 Day Fiancé offers a never-before-seen look into the world of international dating and matrimony. Using a unique 90-day fiancé visa -- the K-1 visa -- four women will travel to the U.S. to live with their overseas fiancés for the first time. The couples must marry before their visas expire in 90 days, or the visiting fiancées have to return home.  The women will have to overcome language barriers, culture shock, the stigma of the "mail order bride," and skeptical friends and family -- all with a clock that starts the moment they step foot on U.S. soil. Rolling the dice on a cross-border romance, we discover whether these foreign brides-to-be can find their happily ever after in America.  The stakes are incredibly high as these couples will each be forced to make a life-altering decision: get married or send their international mate home.” 

I stumbled across 90 Day Fiancé last month during my brief stay in the hospital while on maternity leave.  (Note: my recovery has been proceeding well, and I thank you all for your well wishes, cards, and flowers.  I’m looking forward to being back in the office soon.)  Being that the show’s subject matter concerns a big portion of what I do on a day-to-day basis, I was hooked instantly.  I’m passionate about my job because I enjoy being able to bring people happiness, peace of mind, and hope by resolving their issues.  This show does a good job of highlighting all those positive emotions associated with the real-life immigration cases that come across my desk.

There are a few small “bones” I have to pick with 90 Day Fiancé.  First, there are some family members and friends on the show who harbor stereotypes about the immigrant fiancés, based on the countries from which they come.  It’s a shame (although a sad reality) that in this day and age, racial labels and assumptions are held by some of the show’s characters, and they are not always properly dispelled on the show.  Additionally, although the show may give the appearance that anyone can bring over a fiancé from another country, there are specific income requirements that a U.S. citizen must meet in order to apply for a visa for a fiancé.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the show may “glamorize” the fiancé-fiancée relationship, but in practice it is not a simple task to prove to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that a short-term (and sometimes even a long-term) relationship is real and void of fraud.

That being said, the questionable aspects about the show are far outpaced by the show’s positive aspects.  The show provides pertinent information into the process of obtaining a fiancé visa, and shares the stories of immigrants who take a risk for love, leaving their family and starting a new life in a country very different from their own.   I urge you all to go to the 90 Day Fiancé website and watch a few episodes, or set your DVR to catch a few reruns. I hope you’ll be entertained and enlightened by the show.  Immigration law is a diverse field that can help many people in this country in ways unknown and overlooked by most, and I am pleased that there is now a TV show that brings attention to a particular aspect of immigration law that I practice and enjoy.

One final note worth mentioning: Obtaining a fiancé visa is just the first stage in a longer process of obtaining legal residency.  A conditional residence is issued for 2 years initially, followed by a removal of these conditions.  Eventually, a person entering the U.S. on a fiancé visa may be eligible for a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

That’s all for now.  Happy spring, and I hope you all enjoy the birds, the bees, the colorful flowers, and the warmer temperatures (hopefully) from sea to shining sea!