Canadian gay couple bemoans U.S. red tape - Washington Blade

Canadian gay couple bemoans U.S. red tape - Washington Blade

Immigration laws bring headaches and anxious border crossings

CHRIS JOHNSON
Friday, May 02, 2008


A gay Canadian couple that immigrated to the United States last year is facing visa and border-crossing problems, causing the two to regret their move.

Chris Barr, 46, and Phil Fogel, 40, once residents of Montreal, Quebec, and partners for 10 years, moved to the Philadelphia area late last year so Barr could pursue work in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Barr was required to move here because his company closed the site where he worked in Canada. The company offered him a new position in the United States.

Barr said he didn’t want to come to the United States, and the unexpected problems the couple encountered after moving here have made him miserable.

“I’m starting to regret it now,” Barr said.

Barr is a resident of the United States and able to work here on an L1 visa. His partner stays in the United States under a B-2 visitor’s visa. The B-2 is given to visitors who are household members with another visitor in long-term immigrant status. Such household members could include the same-sex partner of someone who is a U.S. resident, such as Fogel.

Fogel said Barr’s situation is fine and “basically the problem is me not being his legally married other half,” Fogel said.

Even if the move had proceeded under the most ideal way legally possible, Fogel would have to cut through more bureaucratic red tape than a spouse of a resident to remain in the United States. Fogel’s B-2 visa must be renewed every six months and does not allow him to work in the United States. If Fogel were married to Barr, he would be eligible for an L2 visa, enabling him to be a legal resident and work here.

The couple is unmarried, even though same-sex marriage is legal in Canada.

Barr’s visa is good for at most five years, after which he must apply for a green card. Since Fogel’s visa is connected to Barr’s, at that time he would not be able to apply for another renewal and would have to move back to Canada.

“Obviously we wouldn’t stay here for that long because there’s no way for me to stay here, unless I were to somehow get sponsored to stay in the United States,” Fogel said.

Fogel’s “big problem” with living in the United States is that he can’t work. A graphic designer, Fogel said he is allowed to do business with Canadian clients, although the work he does is minimal.

“Why would a Canadian just live here and not work at my age — it kind of doesn’t makes sense,” he said. “I just don’t want to stay here basically as a housewife.”

Fogel said he could not apply for residency on his own to stay in the United States or apply for a work permit because the processes can take more than 10 years.

In addition to the visa confusion, there are other hassles. Fogel claims that every time he crosses the U.S. Canadian border, there is trouble at customs. Border guards don’t seem to know about the law allowing him to live in the United States with Barr as cohabiting partner, he said. In one incident, border guards discussed what to do with Fogel for two hours while he waited at the border.

Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Joanne Ferreira said she could not comment on specific cases of border crossings because it would violate privacy rules.

Fogel is also troubled over the renewal process for his B-2 visa, which expired last month. Fogel was told renewing the visa would be simple and handed in his paperwork in March to start the process. He is now being told that it could take six to eight months to renew the visa.

Fogel plans to make trips to Canada to meet with clients and attend a wedding in July and August, but is afraid that after going back to Canada without a visa he may be unable to return to the United States.

Barr said the situation with his partner’s visa makes him “apprehensive” because they “don’t know how long until something goes wrong.”


Phil Fogel (left) and his partner, Chris Barr have not wed in Canada. If they had, it wouldn’t affect their visa problems in the U.S. (Photo courtesy of Fogel and Barr)

“My concern is that if at some point [Fogel’s] visa is not renewed, he has to leave the country,” Barr said. “And that would mean we would be split up until I can find a way to get back to Canada.”

Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, said Barr and Fogel’s situation is “exactly symptomatic of what’s wrong with American immigration policy and its exclusion of gay and lesbian couples.”

Having Fogel dependant on a B-2 visa that continuously needs to be renewed is “really a half of a loaf — even sort of a slice-of-a-loaf kind of solution” because “a straight couple in their position would be eligible for a dependent visa that would have wider parameters and would be much easier to deal with,” Tiven said.

One piece of the legislation that could help Barr and Fogel’s situation is the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). The bill, introduced last year in Congress, would allow same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and residents to obtain resident status through the same means available to spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents.

Tiven said the legislation would “end the situation in which loving families are split apart” and are “forced to make a series of impossible choices — living separately or being forced to leave the country if they’re to be together.”

Immigration Equality is holding lobby days this week to urge lawmakers to approve the legislation and is expecting only “targeted couples” for its lobby days, Tiven said. A smaller number of people with vested interests in getting the law passed will be more effective in influencing lawmakers, she said.

During the lobby day, Immigration Equality plans to draw attention to a New Jersey mother whose two children — one gay and one straight — are encountering vastly different circumstances in trying to be with their significant others. The mother’s straight daughter fell in love with a man from Ireland. The daughter was able sponsor him for the green card and they now live in New Jersey. The mother’s gay son fell in love with a man from the Czech Republic. That couple is moving abroad because the son cannot sponsor his boyfriend for a green card.

“As [the mother] says, I think very movingly, ‘Look, if you want to make a mother angry, give one of her children something that you deny the other,’” Tiven said.

The House version of UAFA is in a Judiciary subcommittee. The Senate version of the bill is sitting in that chamber’s Judiciary Committee.

Tiven said she does not expect the bill to pass this year because there are not enough votes in Congress. Immigration Equality is focusing on educating members of Congress for a future vote.