Waiting at the international entrance at Dulles airport, I started to see the flow of Korean passengers increase so I knew my wife's boys would soon be working their way through immigration. Their mother, my wife, could not get off work this day so it was up to me to ensure they arrived home safe and sound. After 10 minutes the flow of people coming through the double doors slowed so I became a little worried. Soon, a woman who was wearing a Korean Airlines uniform came out saying something loudly in very accented English. I couldn't make out what she was saying but I had a feeling it was about the boys. As she came closer to me, I spoke up and said does this involve two young boys from Thailand? She looked at me quizzically and said "no, they are two boys from Korea." Now I knew what was up, so i asked was their name this? Oh yes, she said, "who are you?" I said I was their uncle and sponsor for them to get in the US. She said they were being interviewed and fingerprinted at immigration and that they would be along in a little while. Again with the fingerprinting, I thought, as I thanked her.
I know we know live under a set of different rules regarding public safety, but this was their second set of fingerprints and their second presentation of their passport. I know from working with security agencies that name and face identification is hard to do in the west. Names, especially Muslim ones, are hard as there is a limited pool of names to choose from, is obvious. Faces, especially Asian ones, are hard for Caucasian security officials because "they all look alike". Hence, the multiple fingerprints. For those who think I have a western bias, I know this is a similar problem in the East where Thai officials cannot discern western faces.
So I sat down and waited, a little worried that some knuckleheaded official would discover some new interpretation of some obscure rule and decide to detains the boys. Such was my relief when they emerged smiling and pushing 2 carts with 6 bags on them. We hugged awkwardly, as this isn't done much in Thailand even between parents and children, and started to work our way towards the car. We had to borrow a friend's SUV as my 5 passenger car would not carry all of us and bags, too (how do Europeans do these things?)
When we arrived home, I had them help me carry the bags to their rooms. They were obedient helpers and tugged mightily at the bags. I asked if they were hungry and they said yes. I knew they liked some western food so I inquired about popcorn. They shook their heads "yes" enthusiastically. So I microwaved some popcorn, split up an apple and put it on a plate with some cheddar cheese, and then presented to them in front of the TV. I was watching my favorite football team play poorly, but no matter, they enjoyed the action as they devoured the food.
Later, my cell phone rang and it was my wife. I passed the phone to the boys who had a lengthy chat with their mom. They listened expressionlessly, as Thai boys are taught at a young age not to show emotion even in emotional events like these. After this, I spoke to my wife and she was quietly ecstatic they were finally in our home. Later, as the game wound down to it's inevitable bad ending, the boys started to move slowly and become more horizontal on the couches. I asked them if they would like to go upstairs and try out their new beds. They agreed sleepily and soon they were snoring listlessly. Mother jet lag had sent them to bed early.
I relaxed and waited for my wife to come home from work. When she arrived, she gave me a quick kiss and went immediately to her sons' rooms. She stood in the doorway of each one and looked at them for a long time as if she couldn't believe her eyes. We retired to our bed and after few minutes, I thought I heard her breath an audible sigh of relief. But what she didn't know as she fell contentedly asleep, was that the real work of making a life for her boys in America, had just begun.
.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Getting to the Airport
As I sat in the international receiving area waiting for my Thai wife's boys to come through the double doors, I couldn't help thinking about all the work it had taken to reach this point of getting my wife and her children in the same country.
My wife's story about her path to US citizenship from Thailand was bad enough; at one point I had to pay $800 to an attorney to educate USCIS officials (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) about the concept of "comity", where couples wed in one state is accepted in other states. Her kid's tussles with government officials were less frivolous but it was still not an effort for the weak of heart. Security concerns notwithstanding, some of the procedures were just plain silly and served no other purpose than delaying our inevitable reunion.
The process started as most other government processes do, with the filling out of forms. In our case, the I-130 Petition for Alien Relative. But who should fill it out, my wife or myself? Looking at the on-line documentation, I did not see any provision for step-fathers to apply so I helped my wife to fill out the form. Then we waited, and waited, and after 2 years, the expected date of processing was still a distant date. When I lamented to our immigration attorney who had helped my wife obtain her green card, he said that I should apply as the process was much faster for US citizens. I said I didn't see anything about step-fathers applying, but he said it was OK to do. In September 2008, I filled out the forms, added all the needed documentation, and mailed the package along with a substantial check to USCIS.
This is a two-stage process: the USCIS does the initial processing and then sends the files to the US State department, where, eventually, the files are sent to the home country's embassy. By February 2009, we received a notice from USCIS saying our petitions had been approved and sent to State. We were very happy, and thought we were through the worse, but this turned out to be premature giddiness on our parts.
After a month or so of nothing happening, we received a request from State to fill out additional forms which were almost identical to the USCIS ones, and of course, required additional fees. I mailed the packages to their national processing center in June 2009 and later discovered that I should have declared myself their "agent", otherwise all correspondence would go to the boys in Thailand. I quickly corrected this mistake and soon I was receiving updates from State in my email inbox.
Our timeline was short as we wanted to get the boys into the US before school started (end of August). Now State asked for "original" or "official copies" of their birth certificates; the translated copies that were accepted by USCIS were not good enough for State. This was a big problem. Although they claimed to know this, State was asking for something that doesn't exist in Thailand - official BC's. A Thai person is issued an original BC after they are born and they literally carry it the rest of their lives. Now State wanted us to mail these very important documents to them. A couple of pleading phones to State produced no result.
I called our local Congressman who has a staff member that does nothing but respond to immigration matters (surprise!) but there was little she could do. I trolled around the internet looking for answers when I found a item on the Bangkok Embassy's web site saying that for certain immigrations, the applicant could bring their BC with them to the interview. I immediately called State and they sheepishly agreed that this was OK. Although, as you might suspect, I had to write another letter (not email) requesting this exemption. I Fedex'ed it the next day and 2 weeks later I received a notice that their files had been sent to the embassy in Bangkok. My wife and I were very relieved but now it was late July 2009. With a little luck, I thought, we could still get the boys here before school started. I should have known better.
Instead, after a week had passed I called the congressman's office back and asked them to inquire of the status. They called the next day and said the embassy needed to get the paperwork by the 15th of July to be able to schedule an interview for August. We waited patiently but ultimately it took over two weeks for the files to get to the embassy and to be processed. Now we were into August so we had no hope of getting the boys into school on time. In late August we received an email from State informing us the interviews would be September 11, and that they had to bring certain papers with them including a medical form filled out by one of two hospitals in Bangkok.
Now our attention shifted to how long after their interviews (what were they going to discuss, are you now a communist or have you ever been one?) to when we could buy one-way airline tickets for their trip to America. As anyone who has recently traveled by air knows, any changes to the tickets can cost almost as much as the original tickets, especially for overseas ones. We asked State for their advice but they were no help; "it's up to the individual embassy" we were told. Now we asked friends and e-friends and the results were just as ambiguous. Some people told us they had lived in Thailand and had made friends with embassy employees who did the interviews; they always tried to find some problem to ensure they were always busy or just for "snicks". We decided that a week after the original interview would be safe.
We made sure the boys were prepared for their interview; an auntie would accompany them, and then waited for the early morning of 9/11 to arrive. Sure enough, the embassy wanted to see an "original" of my wife's divorce paper before they could stamp a visa in thier passports. Now why, for goodness sakes, couldn't they have decided before that this paper was so important? As I steamed, my wife found out the auntie could return in two days with the papers and the embassy would stamp their passports if eveything was in order. This was great news as our departure estimation was correct but another problem occurred.
Two days before they were supposed to leave for America, one of the boys developed a fever and was soon in bed. The doctor said he could not take a long flight. So we delayed the tickets a week, paid a steep price, but the day before they left everything seemed to be on track. We waited for their arrival date but then found out my wife had to work that day and could not get off. Now it was up to me to deliver them home.
They were traveling alone; no one could be found to go with them. But, unlike American airlines, foreign airlines and especially Asian ones, are happy to make sure your kids get on the rights flights. Yet, as I stood in the waiting area, I was a little apprehensive as I knew with overseas travel, anything can happen.
My wife's story about her path to US citizenship from Thailand was bad enough; at one point I had to pay $800 to an attorney to educate USCIS officials (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) about the concept of "comity", where couples wed in one state is accepted in other states. Her kid's tussles with government officials were less frivolous but it was still not an effort for the weak of heart. Security concerns notwithstanding, some of the procedures were just plain silly and served no other purpose than delaying our inevitable reunion.
The process started as most other government processes do, with the filling out of forms. In our case, the I-130 Petition for Alien Relative. But who should fill it out, my wife or myself? Looking at the on-line documentation, I did not see any provision for step-fathers to apply so I helped my wife to fill out the form. Then we waited, and waited, and after 2 years, the expected date of processing was still a distant date. When I lamented to our immigration attorney who had helped my wife obtain her green card, he said that I should apply as the process was much faster for US citizens. I said I didn't see anything about step-fathers applying, but he said it was OK to do. In September 2008, I filled out the forms, added all the needed documentation, and mailed the package along with a substantial check to USCIS.
This is a two-stage process: the USCIS does the initial processing and then sends the files to the US State department, where, eventually, the files are sent to the home country's embassy. By February 2009, we received a notice from USCIS saying our petitions had been approved and sent to State. We were very happy, and thought we were through the worse, but this turned out to be premature giddiness on our parts.
After a month or so of nothing happening, we received a request from State to fill out additional forms which were almost identical to the USCIS ones, and of course, required additional fees. I mailed the packages to their national processing center in June 2009 and later discovered that I should have declared myself their "agent", otherwise all correspondence would go to the boys in Thailand. I quickly corrected this mistake and soon I was receiving updates from State in my email inbox.
Our timeline was short as we wanted to get the boys into the US before school started (end of August). Now State asked for "original" or "official copies" of their birth certificates; the translated copies that were accepted by USCIS were not good enough for State. This was a big problem. Although they claimed to know this, State was asking for something that doesn't exist in Thailand - official BC's. A Thai person is issued an original BC after they are born and they literally carry it the rest of their lives. Now State wanted us to mail these very important documents to them. A couple of pleading phones to State produced no result.
I called our local Congressman who has a staff member that does nothing but respond to immigration matters (surprise!) but there was little she could do. I trolled around the internet looking for answers when I found a item on the Bangkok Embassy's web site saying that for certain immigrations, the applicant could bring their BC with them to the interview. I immediately called State and they sheepishly agreed that this was OK. Although, as you might suspect, I had to write another letter (not email) requesting this exemption. I Fedex'ed it the next day and 2 weeks later I received a notice that their files had been sent to the embassy in Bangkok. My wife and I were very relieved but now it was late July 2009. With a little luck, I thought, we could still get the boys here before school started. I should have known better.
Instead, after a week had passed I called the congressman's office back and asked them to inquire of the status. They called the next day and said the embassy needed to get the paperwork by the 15th of July to be able to schedule an interview for August. We waited patiently but ultimately it took over two weeks for the files to get to the embassy and to be processed. Now we were into August so we had no hope of getting the boys into school on time. In late August we received an email from State informing us the interviews would be September 11, and that they had to bring certain papers with them including a medical form filled out by one of two hospitals in Bangkok.
Now our attention shifted to how long after their interviews (what were they going to discuss, are you now a communist or have you ever been one?) to when we could buy one-way airline tickets for their trip to America. As anyone who has recently traveled by air knows, any changes to the tickets can cost almost as much as the original tickets, especially for overseas ones. We asked State for their advice but they were no help; "it's up to the individual embassy" we were told. Now we asked friends and e-friends and the results were just as ambiguous. Some people told us they had lived in Thailand and had made friends with embassy employees who did the interviews; they always tried to find some problem to ensure they were always busy or just for "snicks". We decided that a week after the original interview would be safe.
We made sure the boys were prepared for their interview; an auntie would accompany them, and then waited for the early morning of 9/11 to arrive. Sure enough, the embassy wanted to see an "original" of my wife's divorce paper before they could stamp a visa in thier passports. Now why, for goodness sakes, couldn't they have decided before that this paper was so important? As I steamed, my wife found out the auntie could return in two days with the papers and the embassy would stamp their passports if eveything was in order. This was great news as our departure estimation was correct but another problem occurred.
Two days before they were supposed to leave for America, one of the boys developed a fever and was soon in bed. The doctor said he could not take a long flight. So we delayed the tickets a week, paid a steep price, but the day before they left everything seemed to be on track. We waited for their arrival date but then found out my wife had to work that day and could not get off. Now it was up to me to deliver them home.
They were traveling alone; no one could be found to go with them. But, unlike American airlines, foreign airlines and especially Asian ones, are happy to make sure your kids get on the rights flights. Yet, as I stood in the waiting area, I was a little apprehensive as I knew with overseas travel, anything can happen.
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