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Absurd immigration rules force foreign spouses of Americans to immigrate to the United States.
Love happened to me while traveling.
I went to Algeria in 2008 to work on a theater project. I was determined not to have a single man hit on me. I bought fake wedding rings and made up a story of a handsome American husband named Luke (inspired by my mom’s Labrador). In my imagination he was blond, brown eyes and very athletic.
Then I went to a theater festival in Algiers and met Mohamed, an actor and director. He used to be a cyclist for the Algerian International team. He loved camping in the desert. He was an avid reader. He wrote plays. The story of my American husband named Luke evaporated.
Mohamed and I were married in Algeria in January of 2009. We thought he could come and visit Minnesota, the summer after our wedding, while I worked with a theater company in Minneapolis.
So Mohamed filled out a tourist visa application online. He bought a round trip train ticket from Oran to Algiers and took a hotel room. He arrived at the U.S consulate with $131 in hand thinking he had this in the bag. After all he is married to an American citizen.
Turns out that foreign nationals of countries such as Algeria, Taiwan, Argentina and Qatar are forced to immigrate to the United States if they want to meet their in-laws. Who knew that the U.S sometimes requires people to immigrate!
According to the Immigration and Nationality Act law 214b:
Every alien shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for admission, that he is entitled to a non-immigrant status…(www.uscis.gov)
The U.S consulates around the world, in non-visa waiver countries, assume all spouses of American citizens to be ineligible of non-immigrant status. (A visa waiver country is any country that is part of the visa-waiver program. This program allows citizens of certain countries to enter the U.S without a visa.)
Our foreign spouses, the unfortunate citizens of countries that don’t have a special “in” with the U.S, are not even allowed the opportunity to prove to U.S consular officers that they have strong ties to their home country and that they will indeed return at the end of their stay.
Law 214b, as it is currently interpreted and put into practice, denies our foreign born spouses the right to visit the U.S.
In Mohamed’s case, a consular officer at the U.S Embassy in Algiers informed him that the reason for his immediate visa denial, without review of his supporting documents, is simply the law. Since his American wife can file a petition for him to immigrate he is not allowed to enter the U.S as a tourist.
“But I do not want to immigrate,” he said to the officer behind the window.
“You must immigrate,” she said.
“But I don’t want to immigrate! I want to visit.”
Perhaps some might be overjoyed at hearing those words from an official of the U.S. You must immigrate! They might not care they had lost nearly $300. They might think no sum is too large to get to the U.S.
However, in a situation like ours when you are living abroad and don’t have immediate plans to move to the U.S this is incredibly difficult. The interview at the consulate in these cases causes humiliation, loss of hard earned money, and animosity towards our country already facing strong criticism from abroad. The U.S government arrogantly assumes that everyone intends to immigrate.
How absurd, with all the talk of illegal immigration and undesired immigrants that Mohamed will be forced to immigrate in order to meet the majority of my friends and family.
He has never been denied a visa to Europe. An established actor in Algeria, teenage girls giggle at him when they cross him on the street. Why would he want to leave permanently?
Furthermore, to our chagrin, the consulate in Algiers does not state this fact on their website. The state department should inform American citizens married to foreign nationals of non-visa waiver states that our spouses are automatically ineligible simply because they are married to us.
Falling in love, marrying, and residing with an American in their home country is a major strike against them. Twisted is the only word that comes to mind.
Undertaking the immigration petition costs as much as the average monthly salary of most Algerian workers. Compounding this expense is the validity of the Green Card. Once a foreign spouse holds the Green Card they must return to the U.S every year. We live in North Africa and would rather be spending our time and money exploring the sites of the Mediterranean.
Simply put, forcing our spouses to immigrate just to visit and spend time with their family is preposterous.
Community Connection
For more stories about immigration and visa issues, check out how to move to the U.S once Obama is president and know before you go: visa and immunization problems that could leave you stranded and how to get an EU work permit.
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17 Comments... join the discussion!
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This scares me. How many levels of crazy lie hidden in U.S. immigration/visa policy, waiting to pounce when you least expect!?
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Insane.
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Pretty lame.
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Inequitable
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I agree with the title, but for a different reason. I am not allowed to work in the Netherlands even though my wife is Dutch. That’s also preposterous. I even speak Dutch! So she’s forced to immigrate to the US in order for us to be together. Luckily we found a roundabout way to be together in the Netherlands in a few years (I will go to graduate school there on a student visa. After graduating I am allowed to look for work as a “highly-skilled migrant”). I understand this situation is different than in the article, but not for the level of stupidity that has to be dealt with.
It got me thinking, though. Is there any country asking “give me your hungry, your tired, your poor”? I thought Dubai was the hot spot for no questions asked immigration but the current state of the economy has cancelled that. Is there anywhere left?
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Wow. I don’t understand. I thought marrying an EU citizen was pretty much a guarantee to land EU residency?
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I would have EU residency, but I would still need a work visa. That’s why the highly skilled migrant route is our best option.
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Residency but no work permit. Crazy bureaucracy!
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I’ve always had good luck with US embassies. And when my wife came in she was looking at a 5 year jail term for marrying an American so we couldn’t make mistakes.
First we went to the embassy in a neigboring country and I spoke to an American working there. We told him what we wanted to do and then asked him what would be the best way to go about it.
Seven and a half weeks from application to plane ticket. All our paperwork was exact and we were extremely forthcoming to all questions.
As a citizen the US embassy can be extremely helpfull, but they have to follow the rules. You must play the cards you are given.
Good Luck to any reading this.
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Wow. I knew the US had some pretty ridiculous laws, and lacked some pretty obvious ones, but this both absurd and completely arrogant. Not everyone wants to move to America.
My thoughts go out to both of you, and I hope you can figure out some way to get into the country without moving. Good luck!
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I am from Argentina and my husband is American, we had a son in Argentina and were expecting a very hard time in the US embassy. We did, but not for the reasons we thought, they didn’t hesitate to give me a 6 months tourist visa with the possibility of extending it for another six months, but when it was time to sign up our son for a US passport, they demanded that my husband (who is not and argentinian citizen) prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was in fact American, even though he has no other citizenship. The employee insisted that a birth certificate and 5 passports were not enough proof of his nationality. They demanded to see all his school records before recognizing his American citizenship.
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I married a woman who is an Italian national. She came to the country on a fiance visa (K-1), and wasn’t allowed to even visit the United States as a tourist, otherwise it would’ve voided her K-1 application. While she was here, she couldn’t leave the country to visit her family in Europe or it would’ve voided her residencey status. We were able to do one trip when she filled out an “Advanced Parole” (what a warm and fuzzy title) form allowing her to return to the US legally. If we didn’t have that form, she wouldn’t have been allowed back in, and we would’ve had to start the process from scratch.
We had to jump through many hoops, but that’s because so many people have abused the system; overstaying their tourist visas, illegally working here in the country, entering on a tourist visa when they know they are going to get married (a huge flag, ICE can really get you on that one). We played by the rules to the letter and now she’s here illegally. That’s why I have even more disdain for people who try to shortcut the process. The law is the law, as a US citizen I played by them, even though I disagree with the process.
Ironically, we divorced several years ago, but I have no regrets that we never tried to game the system. Down the road, my decisions won’t come back to haunt me.
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I was born in Cuba and immigrated to the US years ago. I am an american citizen, therefore I can petition any immediate relative to immigrate to the US. My father has been denied a tourist visa 2 times in the course of 4 years. His next appointment to apply for the visa again is 2 years away.
Same case, he doesn’t want to immigrate. He is allowed to immigrate but he won’t be allowed to visit me.
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q about this .. i am married to a dutch man .. the us prosess to get here seems so long and I do not mind living in outside the u.s. I currently work from home and have a american bank account cant i just continue working online and polish up my dutch then go to school why cant we get work permits is that not allowed at all?
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I committed the sin of falling in love with a wonderful man from the Middle East and after reading much on US immigration am just so nervous I can’t sleep and I’m not even married yet. You know that feeling at the pit of your stomach well it’s constant now. But I love him and will live with him until I can come back to the USA. I would just like to know why they seem to enjoy to torture us when all we want is a normal life with that person we fell in love with. Is it to much to ask? There is no reason to make this so difficult yet there are millions of illegals who just walk in. It seems we’re punished for doing things the right and legal way. I hope President Obama would help us so we can live our life’s. Much luck and prayers to all of you who have a loved ones from another country.
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I have an Algerian boyfriend and we are trying to figure out the best way for him to enter the country. We want to get married but he doesn’t want citizenship.
How do we go about this?↵
