A Trip Home

In twelve more days my partner Nuria will fly back to Costa Rica. She will visit family and do some business and then, after two weeks, she will fly back here.

Having Nuria in the house has really spoiled me. I already know that I won't eat for two weeks. I won't wash laundry for two weeks. I can't say for sure, but I probably won't get out of bed for two weeks, except to drink water and pee. The funny thing is that while I'm not eating, not dressing, and not getting out of bed, Nuria thinks I will be able to water her flower bed in the front yard. But use common sense. How can I water flowers in the front yard while I'm in bed and naked? There is just no way.

Nuria, being a widow of a U.S. citizen (his name was Ralph), is entitled by U.S. law to permanent residency in the U.S. And she has had permanent residency before; she lived in the U.S. for ten years before returning to Costa Rica because of her mother's ill health. She and Ralph decided to stay in Costa Rica after her mother's death, so he obtained permanent residency there and Nuria gave up her U.S. residency. Then I met Ralph on the Internet and we became good friends and we video chatted every day. Ralph passed away from throat cancer, and I watched it happen. Nuria took care of him: bathing him, feeding him when he could eat, giving him injections of morphine for pain. She took care of him at home until the moment of his death. 

After a short while, Nuria and I began video chatting on Skype. After a few months, Nuria flew up to visit me. That was November 24, 2020. We've been together since then, except every five months she must return to Costa Rica for two weeks. Without permanent residency, she can't stay in the U.S. for more than six months. 

As I said, she is entitled to permanent residency because she had been married to a U.S. citizen until his death. She filled out all the paperwork, and there was a big stack of it, and she sent it to USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration) on February 23, 2021. The process was supposed to take 6 to 8 months. She has inquired about her application several times and the answer from USCIS is always that it's being processed. They also claim that her case is within normal processing time which, as I already said, is supposed to be 6 to 8 months, and yet she applied over 17 months ago. But you can't speed up bureaucracy.

Every time she flies here it's a gamble, because immigration officers can turn her away and send her back home. They don't need a reason. They can do it because they think she's made too many trips here. They can do it because they're having a bad day and want to share their misery with someone else. Every time she flies back to Costa Rica, I feel like we're rolling the dice.

So as I said at the beginning, I have twelve more days with Nuria, then she'll be gone -😞- and then she'll be back, hopefully, after two weeks ... assuming the Immigration People aren't in a bad mood that day. Please keep your fingers crossed for us.