Family gets US visa after 26 year battle
September 28 2009 by Mark Johnstone
The Thai family in US visa dispute
A Thai family living in Los Angeles has finally ended a US visa dispute after 26 years, says a report in AP.
48-year old Andy Promsiri, his brother Kevin, and their 72-year old mother all faced deportation back to Thailand. The mix-up was over a divorce document that dates back to 1971.
The document was first submitted in 1971 by the family to US immigration officials. It was first accepted but then challenged by officials nearly 30 years later.
The story began when Promsiri's mother Pai Ciesiolka and her two young sons made the move to the US from Thailand in 1971 to join her husband, who was staying in the US on a student visa. Four years later, the couple went to the Thai consulate in Los Angeles to request a divorce.
Pai Ciesolka remarried an American, Paul Ciesolka, less than a year after the divorce and flew back to Thailand to obtain her and her sons’ green card for residency in the US.
The second marriage also ended in divorce but the family continued to renew their green cards each year to remain in the US and obey US visa law.
Problems emerged when the brothers tried to obtain American citizenship. Andy was refused in 1983 while the whole family was declined in 1998.
More than a decade later, they got letters saying were being deported. US immigration officials said they didn't recognize Ciesiolka's 1975 divorce certificate and alleged she was actually married to two men when she got her green card that year.
The family who had moved to the US over 40 years ago and held down professional jobs turned to the media for help and sought legal advice.
"This was a Kafka-esque ordeal," said Carl Shusterman, the family's immigration attorney. "You wake up in the morning and you get the mail and you've been a green card holder since before you were 10 and all of a sudden the government wants to deport you."
After a lengthy battle, US immigration officials finally granted the family their citizenship.
In reaction to his personal battle for citizenship, Andy Promisiri said: "It's just one of the happiest days in my life. Now I can relax and enjoy being an American. It is wonderful."
See the latest Immigration News
