Japanese widow gets Senate support for US marriage visa campaign

October 14 2009 by Liam Clifford

A Japanese widow is seeking help from the senate with her US visa application after her husband was killed in Iraq.

The Japanese widow of a US Marine who was killed in battle is now seeking help from the Senate in her fight for a US visa and to be able to remain living in the US with her daughter and her in-laws.

Hotaru Nakama had been in a relationship with Sgt. Michael Ferschke for 13 months before she found out she was expecting their baby. Ferschke was on tour in Iraq at the time and the couple decided to get married by proxy last year. A month later, Ferschke was killed on duty.

Nakama has since moved to the US to live with her in-laws in Tennessee and is desperately fighting for a US visa that will allow her and her daughter to remain living in the US permanently.

A piece of legislation dating from the 1950s says that the authorities do not consider a ‘spouse’ as someone who married by telephone, unless the marriage has been consummated.

This dated law is preventing Nakama from obtaining a US spousal visa despite the fact that the two were legally married and she was already pregnant with their child.

Senator Kim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, together with Tennessee-based Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, are now sponsoring a bill to help Nakama obtain her spouse visa.

Webb says the bill will “right a wrong for a Marine's family, who paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country."

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