Joe and Miriam have been able to join Matthew and me in America, but unfortunately Esther is still waiting for her visa. Esther and I haven’t seen each other since June and the separation is getting increasingly difficult.
When Esther had her appointment at the embassy she was told that the wait would be a minimum of 8 weeks. That 8 week period expired two weeks ago. I contacted my senator (who had successfully pressured the embassy to release Joe and Miriam’s visas independently of Esther’s) who then inquired about the status of Esther’s application. Her application is currently being subject to border security procedures. It is routine that details of all visa applicants are compared to those of individuals who are not eligible to receive United States visas. If an officer is unable to exclude an applicant as a possible match to an ineligible person, the officer must submit the applicant's details to the State Department for interagency review and clearance. That is what has happened with Esther’s application.
For some absurd reason Esther has not been excluded from the list of people ineligible to be given a visa and the case has been passed on to the State Department for investigation before clearance can be given. It is a mystery that this should occur since Esther’s application is the same as Joe and Miriam's (apart from personal details).
I would appreciate it if all our friends would vigorously pray that Esther would be given clearance to come.
I don't really understand why Esther is having to go through this. It seems ridiculous. I could understand if she was coming from Iran, or Cuba, or Moroco...but England. Welcome to Bush's America.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see results, believe me: Pray to the Virgin Mary and/or St. John Maxamovich of San Francisco. We don't know how this works, but it does work. They can cut through all the red tape in something like this. I know that this even works for people who aren't Orthodox, so it's worth a try---, when everything else is blocked.
I will continue to remember your family in prayers.