As a citizen of Kazakhstan, for seven years they have not been able to receive the status of political refugees in the USA

They don't want to advertise their story, so I changed their names. Svetlana and Oleg are husband and wife, their son is growing up, they work in government jobs and have been waiting for documents for many years. At the end of August, they moved from New York to a small town in New Jersey to begin the fight for legal status in the country anew. According to immigration lawyers, their chances of success are extremely low.

Фото: Depositphotos

In the US, Svetlana and Oleg arrived in June 2011 of the year under the “Work and travel” program.

— We didn’t know much about America, but in our church missionaries who came from the USA taught English. And they talked so interestingly and captivatingly about their country that we were inspired to go and see it,” says Svetlana. — My mother and Oleg’s parents live in Kazakhstan. And we applied to participate in “Work and travel” from this country. In 2011 we flew to New York. Oleg and I have been together since 2007, so we did everything together.

Today, spouses do not want to go into the details of their business, because they are afraid of making enemies for themselves or their parents who remain in Kazakhstan.

“I can describe the situation in general terms so as not to say too much,” says Svetlana. — It seems to us that the current situation in Kazakhstan is quite deplorable. Our parents’ generation is still tolerant, since they grew up under Soviet rule, but our generation—thirty-year-olds and younger—is constantly faced with problems of a national and religious nature. The way back was forbidden to us.

On the advice of friends, we almost immediately turned to a certain company, I don’t want to name it, because I don’t want to advertise, especially since it’s not worth it... The “specialists” of this company, whose main activity is to provide assistance to immigrants, turned out to be unsuitable for their professional needs. They sent us to our current lawyer.

— Svetlana, how did it happen that the process has dragged on for more than seven years? Whose fault is this? The US bureaucratic system is no good, the judge was unsuccessful, the lawyer is to blame... or maybe it’s a combination of reasons?

— Yes, we have been waiting for immigration court since 2011. In April 2012 we got married, then our son was born. During this time, we passed special tests and got a job in a government agency, where we work; we are both engineers by profession. So many things have happened except one thing - we can't get status. And there are several reasons for this: the irresponsibility of the lawyer who did not show up for the very first interview. Moreover, over the years we have paid him about twenty thousand dollars.

Фото: Depositphotos

The second reason I would say is the cultural limitations of the immigration officer, who did not have enough knowledge to understand that Ukrainians born in the USSR could seek political asylum from Kazakhstan. It was a shock for her - the Ukrainians themselves are asking for protection from Kazakhstan in the United States. Like this?

Another reason was the neglect of the work duties of the judge, who literally forgot about the first court, then fell ill before the second hearing and retired two weeks before the third hearing.

Every time a court hearing was cancelled, a new one was scheduled literally years later. For example, the last time it was postponed for three years. However, it is impossible to influence this process. We, as applicants, have tried everything - direct calls to the court and USCIS, letters to congressmen and the New York senator... No use.

—Can you tell me the name of the judge who caused the hearings to be postponed so many times?

- Undoubtedly. His name is William Van Wyck. He was the one who didn’t come to the hearings in 2012, then he got sick in 2014, and then he retired in 2016. I probably don’t have the right to be angry with him, we just had a lot of faith in him. There are special statistics on the Internet - the percentage of approval of decisions on cases for each specific judge. And he was very good. Sometimes you look at these statistics and it makes your hair stand on end - 90% of refusals, for example. But this one doesn’t. But he didn’t come, got sick, and then retired altogether...

— Have you been appointed a new judge for the case?

- Yes, this happens automatically: they refused an interview, which means the case is transferred to immigration court. If, like ours, the judge retired, then a new one is attached to the case.

And we were assigned a judge whose name is Sandy K. Hom. We checked his statistics and saw that his failure rate was almost one hundred - 95%! Moreover, if we talk about the lucky 5%, then only one percent of them come from the post-Soviet space.

The next hearing in our case was supposed to take place in February 2019. But, according to several immigration lawyers, there was no point in going to him - he would have refused. After all, we have been in the country for seven years. Here you can, without going into details, say - you’ve been in the USA for so long that a lot has already changed in your country, go home, guys! We cannot speed up the process or change the judge.

So we decided to move to New Jersey to change jurisdiction. Although our lawyer told us that this new judge was about to retire, and that means that this meeting would be rescheduled ... But we decided to leave for another state.

Фото: Depositphotos

- And start all over again...

- Almost. Our main problem now is that absolutely any judge, due to the age of the case, can refuse to consider it based only on old data and require new evidence, which we, being here, without permission to leave, simply cannot provide. In this case, as in the case of refusal in court, there will be an order for deportation. And then we will have to file an appeal, which could take another ten to fifteen years to be considered... In general, now we are in uncertainty - who the judge will be, when he will appoint a trial and how many more years will we have to wait to hug our parents... But what scares us most is not the timing and not probable refusal, appeal against deportation order later. What scares Oleg and me the most is that we are alone here with our son. After all, we can’t even write a will. God forbid, if something happens to us, the child will never be given to his grandparents, because he is a US citizen and they are not.

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