From Deseret News archives:
Separated Utah family waits for visa news
Wife, 2 girls wait in Guatemala to see if application is OK'd
After living in Guatemala for nearly five months, the child has forgotten how to speak English, and Thorsted worries those fading memories could include her daughter's father, Aaron Thorsted.
"She doesn't remember anything about the U.S.," Thorsted said in a telephone interview. "She speaks Spanish, she doesn't speak English anymore. It's hard to see my baby forget everything."
Thorsted, who had been undocumented while living in Utah, returned to Guatemala with her young daughter to apply for an immigrant visa.
Neither she nor her husband thought it would take so long. Thorsted was pregnant when she left. Now she says one of the hardest things to deal with is that her husband has yet to meet his infant daughter, who was born in Guatemala.
Yet, she says, the sacrifice is worth it.
"I have my life in the United States, I have my husband and my kids," she said. "That is why I want to fight to have a visa."
Her husband, Aaron Thorsted, said he started the application process for Johana's legal status shortly after the couple married in 2003, but it was put on hold when he was called to active duty with his Army Reserve unit and served in Iraq.
As a U.S. citizen, Aaron was able to apply for his wife's immigration visa. But because Johana Thorsted had been living in the United States illegally, she faces a 10-year bar before she can return.
She went to Guatemala to apply for a waiver of that bar. In order for her application to be approved, Johana Thorsted will have to show her absence would cause "severe hardship" for her immediate relatives who have legal status, said Sharon Rummery, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
When she returned to Guatemala, Thorsted submitted her visa application through the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. Once the paperwork was verified, her application would be processed by the CIS office there. Applications at the Guatemala City office are currently taking five to six months from the time they're received by CIS, Rummery said.
"Every case is adjudicated on its own merits," Rummery said. If the waiver is approved, "she'll get an immigrant visa" because of her husband's application on her behalf.
The separation has been an emotional burden as well as a financial one for Aaron Thorsted, who must now work to support two households.
He knows his infant daughter only through pictures, and he can't communicate with his other daughter. However, he looks at the situation optimistically, saying the experience will be good for the toddler in the long run.
"It's just wonderful hearing her speak anything to me," he says.
