What I hate about my job

I like my job, but there is one thing I hate about it and it's not even the paperwork (though I greatly dislike the paperwork). What I hate is telling people they can't bring a loved one to be with them in the United States. I had to do that this week.

There is a very sweet woman about my parent's age from Burma who arrived in Buffalo a few months ago. She left behind her husband and two daughters. She came to file for her family to come, but using the I-730 form (the only form someone without a Green Card can use) she can only bring a spouse and unmarried children under 21. This woman's two daughters are 20 and 23, so she can only bring one of them.

When she came to the office she showed me the pictures of her two beautiful daughters. She said, "I made a mistake in coming. I should not have come without my family." She told me that every day she is sick to her stomach without her children.

I am helping her apply for her younger daughter and husband, but she cannot apply for her older daughter until she has her green card. She will probably have her Green Card in a little less than a year (as long as there aren't any problems or hang-ups getting it). Once she has her Green Card she can file an I-130 for her older daughter. That application takes longer to process and is expensive (the I-730 is free). Hopefully, her daughter will join her and the rest of her family in the United States, but in the meantime she has to wait for potentially a few years.

I had to explain this to the woman and all I could do when she cried was listen and offer her a tissue. The daughter that she cannot bring is my age. I can't help but think about how it is for me to be away from my family and how it is for them to be away from me. I get to see them every few months and we're in the same time zone (not to mention the same country). If suddenly I was stricken with a homesickness that made me physically ill, I could go home. Sure, her daughter is an adult, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want to be with her mother and that her mother doesn't want to be with her.