PAUL Stevens has been denied a United States visitor’s visa four times, but the last time hurt the most.
His 21-year-old daughter Rachel was buried yesterday in Bronx, New York, after succumbing to her illness on December 17 last year, and he was not able to attend the funeral.
Rachel, for the past four years, had battled chronic kidney disease. That, along with a medical history of nephritic syndrome, interstitial nephritis, drug-induced diabetes mellitus, edema, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, had cut the time she had left to live short.
She was on summer break and was visiting her father when she woke up one morning in pain. She was rushed to the hospital for treatment and shortly after taken back to the States for further care.
Stevens, on his last visit to the US Embassy in Kingston, was told that he did not show enough ties to the country.
After all, his children and their mother had become US citizens and were living there, while Stevens remained here as a meat cutter with MegaMart.
He has had no run-ins with the law, he told the Jamaica Observer, and so could not understand why he had, on so many occasions, been denied the opportunity to travel to the States to care for his daughter.
Back in 1998, having worked in the Cayman Islands, he decided to return home and “try” at the embassy. Having been denied the visa, he waited a few more years and returned on November 18, 2015. He was still without luck. On September 10, 2017 he went back to the embassy, having heard that his daughter’s condition had worsened. Again, he was denied a visa. The last time he went was on December 27, desperately hoping to “get through”.
“They asked me why I wanted to visit the US and I told them that I wanted to give her (Rachel) one of my kidneys. They still denied me, so I don’t know. I went back after she died so that I could attend the funeral and I was still denied,” a distraught Stevens said.
He told the Observer that he had presented Rachel’s death and birth certificates, shown proof that she was a citizen of the country, presented her mother’s passport and a job letter stating his gross salary.
On an earlier visit, he said he had presented a letter he received from the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York outlining his daughter’s condition and urging the embassy to consider allowing him to visit:
“…Rachel is listed for kidney transplant, she requires regular, ongoing medical follow-up for close monitoring of her disease process…In order to provide Rachel with increased longevity and a better quality of life, we are asking that this situation be granted careful consideration in regards to Rachel’s father being permitted to enter and remain in the United States for the period necessary to perform a transplant evaluation and post-operative care. If you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact the medical team…” the letter read in part.
On Friday, Stevens told the Observer that he is now battling depression. He believes that he could have saved his daughter’s life but was denied that opportunity.
“I cried night and day. When I speak with her mom, she cries too. She keeps asking why they have to be so hard to me knowing that I don’t have a bad record. I don’t have any criminal record — nothing like that. I just wanted to go and assist my daughter and come back. I didn’t want to go and run off like the others,” Stevens, now overcome with grief, wept.
The US consul has said in the past that most applicants who are denied visas have done nothing wrong and that they simply did not qualify for the visa they applied for. United States immigration law (section 214(b)) presumes that applicants for most non-immigrant visa categories actually have immigrant intent. Applicants overcome this presumption by demonstrating strong ties to their home country that will compel them to leave the United States at the end of their temporary stay.
The embassy’s definition of strong ties may include job, home ownership, financial resources and family relations.
Sigh. Sad indeed. Nuff ppl I know personally, get visa without all those “ties” dem talking about. Kmt
For real. Some people that get visa I can hardly believe it and people that get denied i worse cant believe it. I would really like to know whats the admission process. Like somebody spirit just nuh tek da man yah.
Who accepts or deny the applications? Is it only Americans or do they have some Jamaicans working with them?
Den all these prostitutes like itsrichruch and shamieland many others. How di f**k they get visas??? Fckry this stlll
…and the murderer Mumzel. I know a woman who got deported from U.K. last April 2017, and got a US visa in September 2017. Suh as someone said up top, somebody spirit don’t tek this poor man. Depression leads to suicide sometimes enuh. I pray he gets a break.
Same so. I’m thinking if the mim is single they may have factored in emotional ties and that he and her would have seeked a fiance visa and get married. Just saying…phuck up said way.
Trump a try get dem out not bring dem een…… Sad still! dem coulda geem even a one entry….
What a horrid tale. Just because the man work a humble job nuh mean American lifestyle interest him. Even a letter from the hospital could not move them. A must robot a review dem deh applications a couldn’t human beings. What a thing him have to live with for the rest of his life because of bureaucracy. May he find peace one day and can smile again.
Thing is, if this man had offered to give a kidney to some dying white American they would have given him the visa immediately, but to save the life of his own black child was not enough reason to grant the visa. Jackass seh di world nuh level.
This is how US system works..they will deny u for every n anything but a the same time they will give u it.. A friend of mind keep getting deny n he have is owne business n house money n they turn him down every time
Issa business. They know that he can afford to keep reapplying.
Met my bf went in December too and got turn down.. he works a honest job and he also has a taxi business.. he showed them all those info and they still turned him..telling him he doesnt have enough social ties met… the lady that interview was a black American she said to him your so handsome.. Why don’t you get married that’s what the lady said to him…met it traumatized me bf him seh him nuh see him self ago back up deh suh… Mi feel it for this father
I know someone who got turned down about 4 times. Then he got married, reapply and got it.