EMERGENCY UPDATE (OCTOBER 2026): REFUSED WITHOUT A HEARING. WE ARE STAYING TO FIGHT IT.

With your support, we made our 3-day journey to Poland. When Anastasia attended her final Embassy interview after a year of government immigration freezes, her Green Card visa was refused on the spot. Instead of the usual officer who knew our case, they gave us a new officer who cut her off, dismissed our documents, and walked away. We couldn’t comprehend this. Just days ago, we were one step away from coming home. We cannot let three years of struggle and sacrifice end like this. We need to come home together. We are staying in Warsaw to fight for reconsideration.

HOW WE GOT TRAPPED OVERSEAS.

In the summer of 2023, one month after our wedding at Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City, Utah, we were full of hope and ready to start our new life. Instead, we found ourselves 5,000 miles away from home.

I am a U.S. citizen. My wife, Anastasia, is not. To comply with U.S. immigration law and finish her compulsory post-graduation assignment as a piano teacher, she had to leave the U.S. and return overseas to one of the most isolated regions of Eastern Europe. I went with her to keep our family together, believing this would be a short-term setback.

But borders closed. Geopolitics shifted. The world changed. A temporary trip turned into an exile of more than 3 years.

By the time Anastasia was free to go, my own employer chose to replace me with AI, erasing our only income. My life savings were gone. Our daily survival went on credit cards. We were trapped overseas with no way to earn, no way to leave, and no way to build a life.

OUR DAILY TRIALS.

The isolation and the daily struggle to find safe, reliable food in this part of the world took a serious toll on our health. I have a hormonal disorder (hypogonadism) that has led to bone tissue loss, muscle atrophy, and chronic fatigue. Anastasia suffers from a nervous system condition (dysautonomia) that triggers nausea and piercing migraines. We’ve grown physically weak overseas, but we have stayed by each other’s side.

With proper food, medication, and supplements, these conditions are stable and manageable. But every month in exile is another month of deterioration we may never fully recover from. Back home in Utah, we will finally have the nutrition, care, and loving community we need to rebuild our strength.

THE WAY HOME: THREE JOURNEYS TO WARSAW.

When we launched this campaign in late 2025, coming home felt impossible. But our church community, friends and family, and so many kind strangers who found our page carried us forward.

We cleared our survival debt, assembled the evidence, and traveled to Poland to petition the Embassy to accept our family case.

On April 17, 2026, Anastasia cleared her medical exam and completed her Embassy interview. The case was fully reviewed but frozen when the government stopped issuing visas to citizens of 75 countries, including Anastasia’s.

The breakthrough came when a federal court struck down the freeze and the government was ordered to resume visa issuance. Our final interview was scheduled for October 19.

OUR BREAKING POINT: THE 10-MINUTE INTERVIEW.

We believed the visa freeze was over. But when Anastasia attended her October interview in Warsaw, her Green Card visa was refused on the spot. Instead of the usual officer who knew our case, they gave us a new officer who cut her off, dismissed our documents, and walked away.

We couldn’t comprehend this. We were one step away from coming home. But we cannot let three years of our struggle and sacrifice end like this. We need to come home together.

We are staying in Warsaw to fight for reconsideration.

WHAT WE ARE FUNDING RIGHT NOW.

We have no legal army, no PR team, and almost no time. We are two exhausted people fighting on fumes in a rented room in Poland.

Anastasia’s Polish entry visa expires in November. If our time runs out and we are forced back across closed borders deep into Eastern Europe, we lose access to the Embassy and our path home closes indefinitely.

Every dollar raised now is going toward:

➡️ Lodging and Survival in Warsaw: Keeping a roof over our heads through November as we stand our ground with the U.S. Embassy.

➡️ Emergency Legal Support: Funding emergency legal support and document preparation to push for the Embassy to review and reconsider our case.

➡️ Transit and Resolution: Covering the transit needed to pack up our lives, close out our three years overseas, and find our way back home as soon as Anastasia’s visa is finally issued.

HOW YOU CAN STAND WITH US TODAY.

Give if you can. Every donation directly funds our immediate survival and our reconsideration fight here in Warsaw. This is the only way to keep our path home open.

Share our story. Send this page link directly to someone close to you who could help. Ask them to pass this on and spread the word. Your share can be the difference between us making it home and being stranded with no way back.

We have fought three years overseas just to be allowed to return together. Please help us fight this refusal so we can finally be safe, healthy, together, and home.

With love and gratitude,

Valentin & Anastasia