Away
from family
Once you become an US
immigrant, you can apply for your family back home. But there are different
categories. And depending on each category will take a certain amount of time
for the beneficiary to get a US
visa. The first is husband and wife, kids, parents and after that are brother
and sisters. Husband or wife, kids and parents doesn’t take much time. When I
became a US
citizen which was 22 years ago, I applied for my mother and she got her visa in
a year or so. She came stayed with me but didn’t like it here so she went
back home. At that time my other sisters needed my mother more than I did.
But after seeing what’s happening in Pakistan
and the political problems getting worse day by day. There is no security and
peace at all. My sisters don’t want to stay there and I also want my sisters to
be safe and have the family live nearby.
In 2004, I decided to apply
for all of my four sisters. It’s like a part time job, filling out all the
papers, and all of the requirements, the process is very slow. In 2007, I got
the letter from immigration asking for my sister’s documents, which is a good
sign. Meaning they are working on it, but then nothing happened. In 2010, I got
another letter saying we have all of your documents we needed from you and your
case has been approved now we are sending your file to the visa center. They’re
the ones who issue visas to everyone. My sisters and I got really excited. We
started thinking, we are getting so close. But before we knew it years went by
and nothing happened. Last year in 2012, I called immigration and asked how
much longer it would take. They said to me, we are still working on 2001 files
and you had applied in 2004 so this could take could years.
Last week my sisters and I were
talking and once again we were wondering this is 2013, what’s happening now? I
decided to call again and find out, but before I called I was hopeful to hear
some good news, it’s been 8 years since I have applied. We are all getting
frustrated. The immigration officer said to me, we are behind and right now we
are working on 2002 files, your files could take 3 to 4 more years. This has
been a very long journey and is still not over. When I applied, my girls were
in grade school and now they are off to college. When I realized this, I felt
sadness in me. We have to wait 3 to 4 more years until my sister’s got here.
Who knows what’s going to happen in the next 4 years. Living away from family
is very hard thing to do. I completely understand since September 11 happened, US
immigration has been very careful, especially people coming from Muslim
counties. I get that but because for some bad people everybody is paying the
price. I don’t think that’s fair at all.
In the last 22 years, I have been
back home and visited my family 3 times. There are many reasons I don’t back
home as mush as I would like to but the biggest one is security and I don’t
feel it at all. I really miss my mother and my sisters and I know they miss us
too. I wish seeing families wouldn’t be this hard and you wouldn’t have to wait
10 to 12 years to see your loved ones. Except for waiting we have no other
options to do. There are other visas too but I don’t want to try that, first of
all, there is no guarantee if they would get and 2nd at some point
they would have to go back to Pakistan.
But with the visa I applied for them, they would become US
immigrant and that’s much better.
Now to me it seems like a dream to
imagine when my family would be around me. We have waited this far and
hopefully after 3 to 4 more years my sisters and my mother will be here in America.
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