Bring my Daddy home

  I’d like to start off with introducing you to what this blog is and will be about. Once that is said and done, I’ll tell you a little about our marriage and family.
 This blog is meant to help bring my husband home and to also bring awareness about Immigration and what families go through in the process. My husbands name is Gary, he is the father to our daughter, Chloe. We haven’t seen him for 119 days. We left Ireland in order to fix his Immigration and bring him home to us, here in California. Getting a straight answer from USCIS was impossible, therefore we had to come home and drive three hours to the Immigration Office in Los Angeles, CA. Driving with a toddler who gets car sick is not an easy task.

  I am hoping this blog will connect to those going through the same thing and educate those who know little about the issue. We are doing everything we can to get my husband and father to our daughter home. This is, yet another, attempt in getting him as soon as possible. I start our story with how we met, years ago, on a rainy Irish day in Cork, Ireland.

I was there on vacation with a friend. It was January, one of the cheapest times to fly. During this time we bought round trip tickets from San Francisco to Dublin for only $450! My friend and I were traveling around and decided to visit Cork. I had been there before and fell in love with the city. Little did I know that that night I’d fall in love, head over heels, with a guy who is now my husband.

 There my friend and I were, sitting in an Irish pub, as you do in Ireland on vacation. Out of nowhere I heard my friend utter the words “uh oh” while looking behind me. I turned around to find a guy who fit every single requirement I had. He was over six foot, a little rough around the edges, had a big, goofy smile and was, of course, Irish. That accent could win me over in an instant. Any friend of mine knew this about me!

  We ended up hanging out all night and getting each others information. We stayed in touch, even with the eight hour time difference, and talked on the phone almost everyday. A couple of months later he asked me to move to Ireland to live with him in Castlebar, where he’s from. I said I’d think about it but knew the answer was yes. Every friend of mine said not to play around, they all knew I was going! I moved from San Francisco to Castlebar and things were never the same after that. It was like a whirlwind and within a few short months we were married and I was carrying our baby girl Chloe.

We moved back to California once we found out we were pregnant, as I wanted to make sure Chloe was an American Citizen without us having to do any paperwork. We lived in Oceano, CA, where I’m from and began working on his Immigration. We had been told by an operator at the 1800 number for USCIS that we could file a fee waiver. We filed twice, along with all of the forms, and believe me there are a lot! But we were denied both times. They never stated why we were denied. I later learned you cannot file a fee waiver for the forms we needed to file. This information would had been helpful at the time.

  After two attempts and eleven hard months, we decided to move back to Ireland to save up money for Immigration. Little did we know the Irish economy was collapsing at an enormous rate. You think the American economy is bad, you should take a little trip over to Ireland. It’ll be an eye opener. We did not realize my husband staying over his three month visa period may cause trouble in the future.
  After living in Ireland for a year, I decided we couldn’t do it anymore. Chloe got too used to being outside and would stand at the door crying everyday to go outside. This wasn’t happening when it was pouring everyday and snowing during the winter. The economy was just getting worse and worse with no sign of jobs ahead. My husband has worked everyday of his life for years now, so him not working was causing him to become depressed. This was putting a lot of strain on our marriage.


 Plus, I was so homesick and had a grandmother, who was very ill and fighting breast cancer, at home. We decided it was best to move back to California but we didn’t know how to begin. I contacts a couple of Immigration lawyers but we couldn’t afford their fees. The only option was to come home and go directly to the Immigration Office in Los Angeles, CA.


  We were told at the Immigration office to file the I-130 form and that, since we’ve been married for more than two years and have a daughter, we should have a response within 30-45 days of filing. The Immigration officer also told us that him overstaying the 3 months shouldn’t be a problem since we’ve been married for a good time now and can prove our marriage is legit. It’s been over two months now and we haven’t heard a peep. We also filed the I-129F, of which no one told us about. I stumbled upon this form after being on the USCIS

  We ask you for any help, if possible. We’ve contacted Ellen DeGeneres to see if she could bring any attention to our case. That woman can work miracles! I ask of you, our reader, to contact her about our case. Maybe we can get enough emails sent for her and her staff to listen and reply to us. Lois Capps is also working with us on our case, thankfully. I’ve written Gavin Newsom and am waiting for a response. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Our daughter walks around all day looking for her daddy and asking where he is. It breaks my heart. We need her Daddy home with us so we can start our lives and be here for one another. We thank you for reading this. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments. Thanks again!

Please note - This blog was written on March 16, 2012. Im going to start each blog with the number of days passed since we last seen my husband and our daughters father. So, if the number for the second blog seems off, that is why. I switched over from wordpress to blogspot. Thanks for your understanding!