Arrival

In just about a week, a close Iraqi friend of mine will be arriving in the United States with his wife and two children. This is the same family I stayed with on a recent trip to Jordan. They fled Iraq in January after a terrifying attack on their home, and will be moving in with my parents in Portland, Oregon until they get their feet on the ground.

My parents speak with the family on the phone every day now, and it is quite sweet to watch them preparing for the arrival. They have repainted two bedrooms in their house, dug out old toys for the kids, and asked friends and neighbors to be part of a welcoming committee. My mother is quickly researching which school in Portland will have the best ESL services, and is trying to find a ceramics studio for the mother, who was an artist in Iraq. I’m looking for the perfect set of winter coats. The family mentioned that they love bicycles, although they weren’t ever able to ride in Baghdad, so I’m also scanning craigslist in Portland for bikes.

It’s taken a lot of effort to get to this point. The father worked as a translator and applied to the Special Immigrant Visa program with my assistance back in October of last year. With the invaluable help of Senator Gordon Smith and his staff, we were able to produce all the necessary letters of recommendation (including an updated letter from General Martin Dempsey, who is currently serving in Iraq as part of the surge) forms, certificates of good conduct, etc.

It is hard to believe the paperwork is over and there are no more hoops to jump through. After one last push to correct a misspelled name in a passport, all four family members received visas in September.

Unfortunately, the SIV program does not include any assistance for Iraqis- in fact, Iraqis have to pay hundreds of dollars in fees for the visas, not to mention the cost of their plane tickets, and are given no access to support or social services in the U.S.

Some Iraqis with Special Immigrant Visas have literally no help. The luckier SIV candidates have been very generously supported by the soldiers they knew in Iraq or family members here in the States. In the case of my Iraqi friend, a local church group in Portland kindly offered to pay for all four of the family’s plane tickets.