After four decades of working through the U.S. immigration system, Corazon Espinosa, 70, finally entered the country legally Thursday — but she needed the help of a congressman.
“I feel really great,” Espinosa said as she met three of her sisters and their husbands at Salt Lake City International Airport. “The wait is over. I really love being with my siblings.”
Espinosa’s husband, Papoy Espinosa, who also arrived Thursday, was wearing a big smile, too. “It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “Now we can be with the family.”
Corazon Espinosa’s mother and father immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines in the early 1980s. All seven of her siblings immigrated in the following years, as late as 1994. But Corazon’s luck with the U.S. immigration system was not so good.
Thursday was a happy reunion among a dozen siblings and in-laws. But the extended family along the Wasatch Front numbers in the dozens. And it’s a very tight-knit group, explained Espinosa’s older sister, Carolina Pangilinan. Every Sunday, everyone gathers at her Orem home.
“We’re very excited for them to be in the U.S. on a permanent visa,” she said of the Espinosas. “They will be staying with us.”
“Forty years is a terribly long time to be separated from family members while waiting for a U.S. visa,” said Jennifer Andelin. “Corazon’s immigration story is just one example of how our immigration system is failing those who abide by the law and try to immigrate legally.”
Andelin worked on Espinosa’s case for several years, beginning with former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz. She now works as senior adviser for Rep. John Curtis.
The saga dates back to 1978, when Espinosa’s mother, Zenaida Sigua, filed an immigration petition for her, Andelin explained. But several years later, Espinosa moved to Sydney and married an Australian. The marriage automatically canceled her visa application.
What followed is something of a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucratic snafus. Andelin set forth a timeline that strains the imagination. Here is an abbreviated version:
In 1984, Espinosa’s mother become a U.S. citizen and filed a new petition for her. But Espinosa heard nothing for nine years. In 1993, the U.S. consulate in Sydney said it had no record of her 1984 petition and asked for new information.
Meanwhile her siblings, one by one, had been immigrating to the U.S. to join their parents in Orem.
On April 28, 1994, Espinosa’s mother filed a new petition for her daughter — nothing happened.
In January 2005, Espinosa asked for reconsideration of the earlier denial. But on Feb. 1 that year, the U.S consulate in Sydney notified her that it did not have a visa file under her name and therefore her case did not exist.
Espinosa sought a review of her case and on Oct. 17, 2006, the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service determined it would approve the 1994 petition — but would not assign the earlier priority date because it had no record of July 27, 1984.
She would have to wait for a visa to become available, officials said, in about 2012. But when her mother died on May 30, 2010, Espinosa’s petition was canceled. She filed for “humanitarian reinstatement,” but the request was denied.
Frustrated, her sister Pangilinan sought help from Chaffetz’s office in July 2012.
His adviser, Andelin, pressed the case with U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service, the Office of Legislative Affairs, and the House Judiciary Committee, among others.
During the decades of bureaucratic consternation, the family has been able to get together with Espinosa and her husband on several occasions in Australia, the Philippines and in Utah. Nonetheless, the family didn’t seem whole, said her sister Celeste Galbraith.
“This is such a privilege to live here, in the United States with all the family,” she said.
It wasn’t until Nov. 14, 2013, that Espinosa’s visa petition was approved — but she would still have to wait for a priority date. That finally came on Oct. 11, 2017.
Espinosa’s visa also allowed her husband to immigrate with her.
Now, the family is only looking forward, said Espinosa’s sister Teena Jensen.
“We’re excited. This is a special day for our family,” Jensen said. “It’s taken too long, but now we can be together as a family.”
