American Gordon Stewart stands in his gutted London flat that he hopes will be a home for him and his Brazilian partner, Marcos, who isn't allowed to enter the U.S. Stewart's employer, Pfizer, has helped make it possible for them to live together in London, where Marcos has the right to work and health-care benefits.

A U.S. citizen, the 47-year-old Pfizer marketing exec had planned to live and work in New York until he retired. His parents are deceased, and his sisters and brother, nieces and nephews live in the U.S., as do most of his life-long friends.

When Marcos called Stewart from São Paulo to tell him his routine student-visa renewal turned out to be anything but, Stewart had worked for Pfizer for more than seven years.

Marcos' student visa wasn't renewed, they were told, because the consulate didn't think he was in the U.S. as a legitimate student. He wasn't married, he was nearing 40, and Stewart, his financial sponsor, wasn't married and was over 40.

It took time. And over the next 17 months, Stewart flew to Brazil 34 times. Eventually he was offered a position in England. His partner could move there and join him, legally. In 2005, Stewart and Marcos moved to London. Neither is a U.K. citizen.

"The outrage is the amount of taxes you as an American have to pay and then your partner isn't even allowed to come here," says Stewart. Read story, Immigration law divides gay couples, Partners left to make painful choice By Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post.

(Photo: by Cate Gillon, Getty Images. "I still hope that one day we'll have the choice to live in the U.S.," says Gordon Stewart. )

Tags: USA, Brazil, United Kingdom