USImmigrationDebate.com

FOUNTAIN VALLEY – Wade Grant knew it wouldn't be easy.

The 45-year-old Fountain Valley man figured there would be something of a delay in getting his Thai wife an immigrant visa.

Still – pretty certain that Kampong Pinongram and their U.S.-born son would join him in time for the holidays – he bought a Christmas tree and wrapped gifts for both of his loves. Three months later, Grant still waits while the presents under his Christmas tree collect dust.

Some might think Grant, a quick-witted U.S. citizen who served his country as a Marine and is now a disabled veteran, might have the odds stacked in his favor. Instead, the born-and-bred Orange County resident has been forced to navigate through an immigration bureaucracy governed by a law as complicated as the tax code. Exasperated with his ordeal, he's taken to the Internet to detail his experience.

He insists on bringing his 28-year-old wife to the U.S. legally by petitioning the government.

"I want to do it the right way," Grant said.

But what was supposed take a few months has become an ordeal of more than a year that's shaken his trust in the immigration system and tested his convictions. At one point, he was even tempted to bring his wife illegally.

Grant said he is only certain of one thing.

"The system is broken," he said. "And ... trying to get someone to listen to you when you know it's broken? It's disheartening. Most people don't know what you have to go through ... the hardship and suffering, I've had to go through to legally get my family here."

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Mariana Gitomer said the agency cannot comment on specific cases.

"All I can tell you is that we are aware of this case and are looking into it," she said in a written statement.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

Grant met his wife in 2006 while he was working in electronics calibration in Chon Buri in Thailand. A first encounter turned to love and the couple became engaged a year later. Grant brought his wife to the U.S. on a fiancée visa and married her in August 2008 in Laguna Hills.

That's about the time the economy took a nose dive. Soon, Grant was laid off from three different jobs and moved across the country for work. At the same time he and Pinongram had a son, named T.J.

Grant's precarious financial situation made him ineligible to file for adjustment to her legal status because he wouldn't meet the income requirements.

Then Pinongram's mother in Thailand became very sick. That's when the couple reached a turning point.

Pinongram, who feared her mother would die before meeting her new grandson, knew leaving the United States would be risky because she hadn't yet received legal residency. Grant knew he'd have to petition for her to return legally from abroad again once she left, but said he couldn't deny his wife's desire for their son to meet his grandmother – possibly for the last time.

A VISA JOURNEY

About a year ago, Pinongram left for Thailand. That's when the nightmare started, Grant said.

As soon as he was able to find a steady job in June, he petitioned for his wife to get another visa. After a minor technicality, Grant received a text and email in late August from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stating that his petition had been accepted and forwarded to the California Service Center for processing.

However, in September, T.J. got sick. A Thai doctor diagnosed him with bronchitis – a condition that likely stems from a bout with pneumonia when the boy was younger, Grant said.

T.J.'s health problems have since deteriorated. While Pinongram takes her son to a rural hospital, about 45 minutes from her village, Grant believes T.J. needs better medical care in the United States.

Grant said he considered bringing his son back to the U.S. to live with him. But that would present a host of new problems, he explained. Grant works full-time and can't afford child care, he said. This means he would have to work less or quit his job to take care of his child. The Catch-22 is that he would then become ineligible to petition for his wife because he'd fail to meet the income requirements to do so.

In addition, the boy doesn't speak English and is very much attached to his mother, having spent very little time with his father.

Instead, Grant asked U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services to expedite his wife's visa, which required travel to Thailand. There he gathered T.J.'s medical information – translating multiple documents from Thai to English at $25 a page – to complete the application for an expedited request.

Overwhelmed with petitions, USCIS officials told Grant that the agency had transferred his case from California to the Texas Service Center to expedite it. However, back-and-forth correspondence between Grant and various agents show inconsistencies. While one agent told him they'd received his case, other agents told him they hadn't.

Even though Wade had a reference number showing the agency had gotten the case, agents on the phone told him there was no record of it in their system, he said. At the same time, USCIS sent him a letter stating that his case had been approved.

While he attempted to clear the matter, Grant said he got nowhere with the agency.

"It was a mess," Grant said.

A veteran who became disabled when he was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in the military, Grant's illness worsened with the stress.

DOING IT LEGALLY

He doesn't have an attorney. It's expensive and pointless, he said.

"I know people who have attorneys and they're worse off than me," he said, sharing stories from immigration forums he's joined.

Instead, he launched a blog that details his experience called USCIS Fiasco: Holding USCIS Accountable. He joined a forum called visajourney.com and tweeted and emailed his local politicians and high-ranking immigration officials about his case.

"I've done my homework. I've done my research," he said.

Armed with a stack of documents, Grant thumbed through pages – mostly correspondence between himself and various immigration officials and local representatives during the last few months.

He dug up an email and even managed to find a direct number for the director at the Texas Service Center, calling and emailing her until she responded and ultimately moved his case to the American Embassy in Thailand.

The desperate father even put the pressure on his Congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa. He called his office. He emailed his aides. Feeling ignored, he even peppered Rohrabacher with tweets until he finally won a response and assistance with his case.

"With my personality ... I've been a royal pain in the ass," Grant said. "I think it helped."

Rohrbacher's spokeswoman, Tara Setmayer said the congressman's office responded within 24 hours of Grant's request and has been in constant communication with him since then.

Earlier this month, embassy officials interviewed Grant's wife in Bangkok and he said it looked like things were finally looking good. However, a legal complication forced Grant into another roadblock.

He paid USCIS about $600 for a waiver, and it could now take up to 180 days for the visa to come through. Officials asked him to stop making inquiries into the case.

"I served my country and I'm a disabled veteran," he said. "I feel like I've been treated like dirt."

TEMPTED TO DO IT ILLEGALLY

An acquaintance once offered Grant the possibility of bringing his wife into the country illegally. While he briefly entertained the idea, he said he opted against it.

"It's ridiculous that I had to consider it," Grant said. "It's not the right way to do it. I would be a hypocrite if I did that. I believe you have to do it legally."

Besides, he said, it would lead to more problems.

Grant said it bothers him that the immigration debate is centered around illegal immigration instead of focusing on what he said is a broken system for people attempting to do it legally.

"I think if they fixed the problems with legal immigration it would alleviate the illegal immigration problem," he said. "It's a hard pill for me to swallow. I'm here trying to get my wife to the U.S. legally and I have go through all this."