February 25, 2000
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On behalf of our family, Yetta and myself, I want you to know that we are 77 and 79 respectively, and very much in love. We have been through a lot
before arriving in this room today. We met before World War II in London but lost track of each other during the aerial bombings in the 1940s. We were
both in the British army, Yetta for 4 years and I for five years. And we didn't meet again until 1996 when I put an advertisement in a weekly paper in
England. With your permission, I've attached a copy of the ad for your information. By way of background, you should know, I became a citizen of the
United States in 1961. I was married for 47 years to a wonderful woman, Ruth, and we had three children and two grand-children. Eighteen months after
she died in 1995 of leukemia, I had a dream and it was of Yetta as a 16 year old. I've attached a story that has a photo of her at 16. I was living
in California when I placed the ad. Yetta saw my ad on a Friday and telephoned me in California. She left a message she was the person I was looking
for. We reunited in London and, to our surprise, we became a sensation on the BBC and the Daily Mail. We had no idea we would marry. But Yetta came
to visit in California and the next thing I knew I was proposing on the 4th of July in 1997 – when I was a spry 76 years old.
That's when we learned about our friends at the INS. Yetta had to wait four months for the fiancee visa to issue from the American Embassy. In about July 1997, I was told that it would take six to eight months for her status in the United States to be adjusted to a permanent resident. In fact, I wrote a letter later in the same month to you, Congresswoman Lofgren, seeking your help, not realizing then how much I really needed your help. I told you then how the INS said they couldn't take into consideration our "advanced age" in speeding up Yetta's application. No question that's true for here we are today and the INS still hasn't issued Yetta's permanent resident card. We have done all that INS has asked of us. You have asked that the INS act. Still we find ourselves in limbo and no end in sight. Permit me now to tell the other members of Congress here today what you know all too well, what we've been through the last few years. First, the INS requested paper work, photos and forms to prove Yetta would not be a public charge, information already given them at the beginning of the application. Once the papers were in and cleared, we were billed a $130.00 fee for the process in San Jose. At this point we asked for the date for her final interview and were told it would take 12-16 months. The time doubled and I am afraid it may yet triple. Second, this is what it means not to have permanent resident status. We went to the Social Security office for a social security number and were told that Yetta had to be a permanent resident before one would issue. We were told that, if Yetta was working, she could get a "green card" sooner. It seemed rather odd, however, for her to look for a job at 75 years of age. Anyhow, that's not what this was about. Yetta didn't come to the United States to work. She came so we could be together. We needed to get a bank account but without a Social Security number Yetta was refused. So we had to make do with a joint account. If Yetta had a Social Security number, she would have been eligible for some of my Medicare benefits. As you can well imagine, our insurance premiums are quite costly, almost $400.00 a month. When it came to income tax time, we had to go to the IRS for a tax identification number. It took up to six weeks to come through. Third, in 1999, we wanted to take a trip back to England to visit my twin brother and nieces and nephews and Yetta's older sister. Since Yetta's case was still pending we contacted INS and were told she would need an "Advance Parole," a document that permits her to return to London and to the United States again without losing her position in line for the permanent resident interview. We were told to fill out a form which would be returned to us in 2 weeks, allowing her to go to and fro back and forth to London for two years. We had to supply photos and fingerprints and pay $70.00. That's what we were first told. But, when we went back a month or two later to the INS with a completed form and everything they required, INS stated the cost was now $95.00, rather than $70.00, INS said the delay would be 6 weeks, not the 2 weeks originally promised, and the parole was only good for one year, rather than the two years originally promised. Lucky for us, we returned so promptly as the INS kept the best to last. The form we submitted was back-dated two months, so that we really only had a ten month window to go to and from London. Fourth, on the subject of Yetta's permanent resident card, when we sought Yetta's parole to leave the country, we learned that our total wait from when we had first asked was now up to nineteen months, and maybe as long as twenty-four months. Fifth, and last, when we finally received a date for an interview on January 4, 2000, exactly 24 months from the time we put in our application, the letter inviting us to that meeting told us we had to re-submit all the same papers we'd already supplied including passports, birth certificates, marriage license, bank statements, tax returns for three years, naturalization certificates, medical information, everything that had already been submitted to the file. I don't think that's fair. It's not easy for us to get these papers. Worse, we couldn't make the January 4th meeting. The day before we were to go to INS, Yetta had to have quadruple by-pass surgery. I had to ask for another date for our interview. INS told me that the interview date would be put in the computer and we'd have an interview 90 days hence. Our main fear now is that when Yetta goes to her interview a form may be missing, a signature be found on the wrong line, something will be needed and, too bad for us, we had no idea that it was necessary. We are afraid after all we've been through that we may be cast back to the beginning, and have to start all over again. We may be spry but we have no illusions about our age. As an American citizen, I am appalled that this is how I would be treated, and how my wife is being treated. I sincerely hope that, as a result of this hearing, not only will my Yetta be helped but so will everyone else who has had to suffer as we have. Thank you.
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Bay Area Congressional Delegation
Studies Chronic Delays at Immigration Agency Statement of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren Statement of Jennifer Dineen-Ocon Statement of Sister Marilyn Lacey Statement of Jacob and Yetta Bromley Statement of Debra Jaramillo-Coker Statement of George Windsor Jones
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