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Report spotlights GLBT immigration challenges
House bill seeks to allow U.S. citizens to sponsor foreign same-sex partners
by Anthony Baldman, Reporter
Published Thursday, 18-May-2006 in issue 960
GLT - Gay and Lesbian Times (gaylesbiantimes.com)

SAN DIEGO - ...San Diego’s Nadine Jernewall and Sze Tan, a binational couple, have been active members of Equality California’s San Diego chapter. They met over three years ago online as friends and a romantic relationship blossomed shortly thereafter. “We were amazed at the connection we felt with each other and decided that we had to be together despite the odds we faced ahead of us,” Jernewall said, referring to the fact that Tan is not a U.S. citizen and first came to the U.S. on a student visa from Malaysia.

Jernewall said the biggest challenge they face as a binational couple is living with uncertainty on a daily basis. “Our being together is contingent upon Sze keeping her job with an employer who is willing to sponsor her working visa,” Jernewall said. Tan, who works as a software engineer, is now with an employer who is willing to sponsor her for a green card. Jernewall said Tan is lucky enough to be well-educated and to possess job skills deemed important to the U.S. economy, but many other people are not so fortunate, and are unable to obtain work visas. The couple does not know how long the process will take for Tan to receive her green card through her employer.

“It could be a year. It could be four years. While we feel lucky to even have this, it is still hard to plan a future when all this stuff is so up in the air,” Jernewall said. “If her company had to lay her off or something, we’d be back at square one.” The couple considered emigrating from the U.S. to Canada in order to remain together as a couple, Jernewall said.

“While Canada is a beautiful country, it was very difficult to accept that I, as a U.S. citizen, would have to leave my country and family in order to stay with my partner,” she said. “This is not something that heterosexual couples ever need to consider, since immigration laws recognize them as a family. The U.S., unfortunately, regards us as strangers when it comes to immigration. Our family is deemed unworthy of protection.” read full story GLT... (photo: Gay and Lesbian Times)

Tags: Love Exiles, Gay and Lesbian Times, gay immigration, equality