Destination Paradise

It has clearly been an eternity since my last post and much has happened. Let's do a quick review for the benefit of those who have been following and wondering, or for those who are new to our story. A lot of this will come from the perspective of my Facebook account. January 2014 Just to recap, our last visa interview was in Seoul in 2012, where we were denied a visa and the opportunity to file a waiver. Since then policy has changed indicating that people in Carlos' situation SHOULD be able to argue for the chance to file a waiver. So that's what we were doing at the start of the year. I finally gathered the necessary documents and shipped them off to our lawyer so she could file our I-601 waiver.  Here's a picture of the stack of evidence of hardship I sent. Keep in mind this is just a portion of the waiver, as our lawyer then proceeded to construct a thick brief to give all of this context. A major undertaking. February 2014 Our lawyer finished con...

Some updates for today: 1) We now have a petition up on change.org.  Signing it sends an email to Senator Durbin, and it only takes a couple seconds! Click the red button in the box below to get started: Petitions by Change.org | Start a Petition » We've also linked this petition on our Ways to Help page. 2) We have a new letter to mail him.  If you haven't sent a letter yet, or want to send another, check out our " Ways to Help " page for the text of the letters and the addresses to send them. 3)  We're also asking for prayer support, and you can stay updated on ways to pray for us on the Ways to Help page as well. Thank you!!

We've definitely surpassed 150 letters this week, so thank you to everyone who has written to Senator Durbin!  The momentum is building, and I have faith this is going to ultimately result in getting Carlos home to us.  Last night I had a really productive and encouraging conversation with someone I would consider an expert in pushing private legislation.  She helped me start brainstorming lots of ideas for the next few steps.  I'll keep you all updated on how to help, so for now let's keep finding Illinois voters to send letters to Senator Durbin.  Thank you all!

OK, everybody, here we go!  We're asking everyone to send letters to Senator Durbin at his Chicago and his Washington offices.  All the details are on our " Ways to Help " tab.  You can access sample letters and addresses there. We are so grateful for the outpouring of support.  New followers of this page, new followers on Twitter, and, last I checked, more than 90 people connected to our page on Facebook in the first day it went live.  We are SO thankful for your support and enthusiasm and we're anxious to put all this positive energy to good use!

After several weeks (OK, let's be honest, YEARS) of roller-coaster moments, we have been encouraged that the time has come to urge Senator Durbin to sponsor private relief on our behalf.  We've tried all the avenues, and we've tried waiting patiently, but no more.  We are calling for this to end NOW, and the right way.  This is scary because of how daunting it is, but exciting because we finally get to involve all of you who have been faithfully standing behind us ready to act all this time. So here's your chance.  It's all going to come down to letters and phone calls.  Lots of them.  We are finalizing a draft of a sample letter that you can send.  We'll let you know when it's ready and where/when/how to send it.  But in the meantime, you can help us by connecting to our Facebook Page and/or our Twitter account where we'll be posting updates to keep everyone informed on where we're at in the process of drawing attention to our cause.

Recently, we were granted the honor of an appointment with Clarisol Duque, who is the director of Senator Durbin's Chicago office. Yesterday, I went with Lucas and my mom to meet her. I expected it to be a quick in-and-out type of thing where she would listen to our story for a minute and then assure me that Senator Durbin will support immigration reform. Instead, here's what happened. We waited in the reception area for a couple minutes and then she came out, super friendly, and really excited to meet Lucas. He, by the way, put on such a show, being extra-cute and smiley and charming the whole time. So she led us, not to some little office or cubicle, but to the CONFERENCE ROOM, big, huge corner room there on the 38th floor overlooking the south end of Chicago's Loop and Lake Michigan. Then Ms. Duque sat down, opened a notepad, and said, "So, tell me about your situation." So I did, and she listened intently. She wrote down all the legal codes. She wro...

I'd love to have posted on all the fun and interesting moments that transpired since the last post. Unfortunately, due to my slacker nature, I'm now forced to jump straight to the very important and not so pleasant news that defines my family's reality. Where to begin? As you all know, or for those who don't, last October Carlos and I received the final word from the US Consulate in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. He is not eligible for a visa to live in the US as my spouse, and he also isn't eligible for the hardship waiver that US citizen spouses usually get to file when their loved one isn't eligible for a visa. All this because of one unfortunate day when he was 16, when he was forced by a parent to seek entry to the US using a relative's US birth certificate instead of the visitor's visa he already possessed. Under immigration law -- INA 212 A 6 C ii to be specific -- a false claim of US citizenship carries a lifetime ban with no waiver. Still, the ...