Dear People,

Today I have something serious to write about the country I decided to live in. My friend Giselle and her husband filed an I-212 waiver. The I-212 is an application for permission to reapply for admission into the United States after deportation or removal. The entire application was a large stack of papers, the kind that you need two arms to carry. It included documents that their marriage is real, bank statements, apartment leases, telephone bills and a lot of letters from friends and family members that shared their desire for justice proclaimed. There’s no formal time limit by which US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has to release a decision about Giselle’s husband’s waiver. They might answer tomorrow, or in a few months or maybe next year. They submitted the application in September of 2012. If the answer is positive they can apply for permanent residency. The same application I had to go through.

Now you have to hold your breath: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) does not know where the waiver application is! It is missing. The big pile of paper with all the accumulated documents has disappeared. It has vanished in the universe of bureaucracy’s ignorance.  Continue reading →