Help with Susan and Mitch's Immigration Costs

Hi, we are Susan and Mitch, recent newlyweds, and we are fundraising for help with our immigration costs so that we can move back to the U.S. and begin our new life together. Mitch is a U.S. citizen and Susan is a Kenyan national. Our fundraising campaign will provide funds to cover our immigration attorney fees and US government immigration filing fees.

Like a lot of couples today, we met and fell in love online during the height of the pandemic in December 2021. A couple of months later and eager to meet in person, we decided it was safer for Susan to come to the U.S. because Mitch has medical issues that put him at high risk if exposed to Covid. Mitch was diagnosed with heart disease in 2019 and a year later with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). And so Susan applied for a U.S. tourist visa to come to the U.S. Initially, her interview appointment was scheduled 18 months out for June 2023; however, we were able to secure an earlier appointment for September 2022 by checking the U.S. Embassy Nairobi's website almost daily for an opening. Long-distance relationships are hard, but after ten months of waiting and hours spent each day on video calls, Susan's visa interview appointment finally arrived. The consular officer denied her visa in less than two minutes. We were devastated. Completely crushed.

A day or two later we picked ourselves up and formed Plan B -- double vaccinated and double boosted and with the pandemic under much better control, we decided that it would be safer for Mitch to travel. We planned to meet in Jamaica. Susan could enter without a visa and for Mitch the flight was relatively short keeping him safe. We booked our flights and a lovely Airbnb a short walk from Seven Mile Beach. We were so excited! After almost a year we would soon be meeting each other in person for the first time. Any couple who has a similar online long-distance love story experience knows what we were feeling. And then it happened -- Kenyan Airways would not allow Susan to board her outbound flight from Nairobi to JFK because she did not hold a U.S. transit visa that was required to transit through JFK even though her connecting flight was in the same terminal. We were never alerted to this requirement when we purchased our tickets. We were again completely deflated. Expedia.com issued credits toward future travel good for one year; however, our AirBnB host was not empathetic to our circumstances and refused a refund. AirBnB customer service was no better and after I left an honest review about our experience, they removed my review because we had not stayed. Talk about pouring salt in the wound. Plan B turned out to be another emotional hardship and a significant financial loss.

Call it pure will. Maybe we were just running on adrenalin at the time, but we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off and hatched Plan C -- Mitch would take the risk and travel almost around the world to finally meet the love of his life. And that is exactly what he did. On October 23, 2022, just before midnight, Mitch walked out of the arrival terminal at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and we met in person for the very first time!

We had a wonderful two weeks together and then it was time for Mitch to go home. Once again we would be separated by great distance and nine time zones. But our challenges would not be over. Not in the least. On his first day back to work, Mitch was laid off. After all the mountains we climbed to get to this point, this gut punch hurt. Really hurt. But like always, we get up and move our love forward and that is exactly what we did. We decided that whatever challenges we would face making our life together a reality we would be better and stronger TOGETHER in the same place. Mitch started packing up his house and making arrangements to relocate to Nairobi, Kenya to be with Susan and navigate our life together. With the whole house packed away in storage, the car sold, and the house rented, Mitch moved to Nairobi in January 2023.

Shortly after that, we started working on our next project -- planning a simple wedding and getting married. We tied the knot on March 17, 2023. Next, we located a U.S. immigration attorney to assist us in applying for Susan's Immediate Relative Petition & Consular Processing for Lawful U.S. Permanent Resident Status or more commonly known as a "Green Card." Although this is a legal process, due to our past experiences with the complex U.S. Immigration system, we decided to hire a highly experienced and professional U.S. Immigration attorney to represent our case and have recently done so.

U.S. Immigration attorneys are expensive. The U.S. Immigration process is expensive and daunting. Due to Mitch's recent job loss and Kenyan visa requirements not to hold a position of employment during his stay, our income is very limited and our monthly living expenses keep our budget tight. We are grateful for anything you can contribute to our fundraising campaign as we move forward through our U.S. Immigration process. It is our dream to return to the U.S. to start our life together. To eventually start a business we can call our own. To become contributing members of the community where we settle. To turn around and help the next ones in line.

Thank you for your valuable time in allowing us to share our love story and thank you for your contribution.