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Elizabeth Olivas, who came to the U.S. illegally at age 4, went to Mexico to get a green card or visa to fulfill requirements of U.S. law and has not been allowed to return since she missed the deadline by a day.
Updated 3:45 pm EST -- A teen stuck in Mexico because she missed an immigration deadline due to a “Leap Day” error received a visa on Thursday that will allow her to return to the US just in time to give the salutatorian speech at her high school graduation this weekend, her lawyer said.
Elizabeth Olivas, who came from Mexico when she was four, failed to meet the visa requirement by one day due to it being a leap year and had been stuck in Chihuahua, Mexico, for the last six weeks while she awaited a decision from the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, according to her lawyer, Sarah Moshe.
“Just got out visa in my hands. I’m coming home!” she wrote in a text message to Moshe. “I’m soo happy!”
Moshe said in an email statement that she also received electronic correspondence from the State Department, reading: “The waiver was approved, and we just finished issuing and printing her visa.”
Olivas, who is eligible for a green card because her father is a U.S. citizen, faced a possible three-year bar from entering the country because of the calendar error. People in her situation are allowed 180 days unlawful presence in the country after their 18th birthday, but after that time would need a waiver, said Moshe, who did not have any details about Olivas’ mother.
Olivas traveled from her home in Indiana to Mexico on April 17, the day she believed was her last chance to be within that180-day window. Not knowing how long it might take to get an appointment once she was in Mexico, Olivas and her lawyer decided she should chose to stay in the U.S. for as long as she could beforehand, Moshe told msnbc.com.
“I would never have sent her had I had any question in my mind,” Moshe said Wednesday evening, noting two legal calculators they had used said Olivas would need to be in Mexico on April 17, not April 16, to apply for an immigrant visa. “It was a very innocent mistake … we were aware within days essentially and tried very hard to work in that timeframe but to no avail.”
Olivas, who turned 18 on Oct. 18, 2011, had sought the expedited waiver after learning about the error. She is graduating from Frankfort High School in Frankfort, Ind., with a GPA over 3.9, was winter homecoming queen and has already been accepted into nursing programs. As part of the 400-page waiver application, she submitted at least 25 letters of support from her instructors, Moshe said.
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Waiting at her paternal grandparents’ home in Chihuahua, Mexico -- relatives she had not met before -- she had experienced the highs and lows of the slow-moving immigration process. She has also missed her prom, Moshe said.
“In the past, on the days when there’s been no movement, it’s been really hard for her,” Moshe said before the decision. “Dealing with huge government agencies, there are days when nobody responds to email or returns a phone call. But she’s really excited right now, I mean she’s really hopeful.”
Principal Steve Edwards told the Indianapolis Star that Olivas has done her homework online while she has been in Mexico and her grades had not been affected.
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"This is a very skilled, talented, beautiful young lady. This hurts me and is one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with in my life," he said.
For the waiver application, Moshe argued that Olivas’ absence would prove a medical hardship on her father, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, among other ailments.
“Last time he was in my office, he literally put his hand in front of me and stuck a finger out and said take my finger if you need to, just do anything,” Moshe said.
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Maria Elena-Upson, a Dallas-based spokeswoman for USCIS, told the Indianapolis Star that the agency normally took applications as they came in and not out of turn. The process typically takes two to three months.
"I can sympathize with this situation, but it would not be correct," Elena-Upson told the newspaper.
Moshe had said she would appeal if the consulate denied Olivas’ waiver application – a step that’s no longer necessary.
“She will certainly enjoy a well-deserved graduation celebration on Saturday!” she wrote in an email.
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When you're her on a temporary Visa, your home is your country of origin. Since her father is a citizen and pay taxes in this country legally, she is on a waiting list for permanent residency. She can thank the flood of illegal immigrants for the problems she is having getting that to happen. Nobody should begrudge a young woman with a U.S. citizen for a parent who is sponsoring her from having legally permanent residency. What I personally object to is the illegals and only that. I do not object to Latinos and/or Mexicans. If you come here legally and you do not go on welfare and use our emergency rooms as your health care provider, then you are welcome here in my opinion. I want the law upheld and a salvage system for the economy not racism against minorities.
So many of you people do not even understand the immigration process. These kids have to leave a country that is the only one that they know. They are as American as apple pie. Then they are placed in a foreign environment that they know nothing about. A dangerous place. Imagine that it was one of your kids going there. Imagine you had to place them there and support them there in a war torn country where the recession is 10 times a bad as it is here. Would you worry. You bet you would. That kid tried to do the right thing and you still bag on her. Study history people. So much of this Country was Mexico. Look at that little war in the 1840's. Talk about unjust. We picked it just to take half of their country away from them. Forgot about that huh? Our politicians have let this happen. Cheap labor was fine until this recession. These are real people and real family's. It is a crock of crap that they are criminals and wrong doers. Some of the best people I have ever known are Mexican. Go after the criminals and keep these kids home.
"Stuck in Mexico"? Mexico is this girl's home country. How can she be "stuck" there? The state department and the dept. of immigration need to join the Secret Service in the doghouse over this.
I realize that at age 4 she didn't have much say in sneaking across the border illegally, but why do we bend over backwards to help her back into America?
This BS is going to come to a head sooner or later, because people are tired of the money and effort wasted on every illegal just because they vote democrat.
How do you know that Mexico is the girl's home country? Just because she was born there? Do you have any idea how many "natural born" U.S. citizens are born outside the U.S.? We even once had a president who fit this description. Chester Arthur, 21st president of the United States, was born in Canada. His mother was a U.S. citizen, his father was not. He was considered a natural born U.S. citizen and therefore eligible to serve as president.
This girl's father is a U.S. citizen. If he became one prior to her birth, and lived here for a specific period of time before that, she is entitled to U.S. citizenship, but it's not automatic -- there is a legal process to follow. Even if her father became a citizen after she was born, her status is not the same as a Mexican national who has no U.S. citizen parents.
George Washington was never born in the US. How did he qualify to become a US President?
Idiot- George Washington was president before we had a working constitution (1789) and the first few presidents had a waiver of US birth because until 1789 we didn't have a legal country. That means we probably wouldn't have had a president until the civil war.
All that time wasted on studying diversity and the rain forest didn't help you much in life, did it?
Yes, Azdad...your home country is the one you were born in. Are you really that dumb?
Don't be obtuse. Over the course of our history, tens of thousands of U.S. citizens have been born overseas, but the U.S. is still their "home country" and the country of their citizenship and their allegiance.
Perhaps you would like to suggest to a U.S. serviceman or woman who is stationed at a U.S. base in Europe or the Philipines that when they have a child there -- in the base hospital -- that their kid's home country is Germany or the Philipines or whatever. It's not -- their home country is the U.S.A. Perhaps you think a U.S. military base in a foreign country is considered U.S. soil. It's not. Those kids are Americans who were born outside the U.S. There is a long history of case law on this issue.
She is an illegal[the pc crowd says undocumented]--hey all of you taxpayers-more specifically those in favor of a rosy spanish filled future-pay your taxes literally a day late and dollar short.Maybe then you'll apppreciate why we don't want ANY illegals here.There are people who don't speak english who scam the system
In the 60's it was "wetback".
Just what America needs more Mexicans-good students or not-legal or not-America is becoming Mexico and look at how great that copuntry is-too bad.
Why have laws and rules if we can pick and choose who those laws apply to? The fact is that she is an adult, made the decision to delay her actions under the law that she needed to pursue, and now she's going to have us look the other way because she is a MEXICAN FEMALE!
Sad day in America where we allow the carelessness of someone who has been riding on the backs of American taxpayers to get her way because of her gender and race.
Most used Mexican phrase: "I didn't know I was an "illegal".
Hey, Obama doesn't know... you can't blame the mexicans. But you can kick them out if they are illegal.
Give it a break! She is an American as I am. Typical fine print garbage use to punish anyone who is heavern forbid-"not Rich". Who in the hell is going to pay my social if no one is paying into it. Legalize all immigrants who have managed to stay in the USA and avoid the IMS for 3 years. We need myoiung people to work, pay taxes and pay into social security. We do not need a shadow population without civil rights that can be exploited and then sent into exile should they dare to expect fair treatment. Not one of the criminals who commited the horror acts of 9/11 was an illegal immigrant. Israeli & Eastern European Immirgant criminals live openly here in the USA, but how dare a hard working immigrant of any complexion without a green card do the same and IMS turns you into a criminal. We are a nation built by immigrants from all nations.
How are the 180 days calculated? I think April 16 and 17, 2012 are both incorrect. Consider that her 18th Birthday on October 18, 2011 is Day 0. Day 1 is October 19, 2011 . . . Day 133 is Feb 28, 2012 . . . Day 134 is Feb 29, 2012 . . . Day 135 is March 1, 2012 and Day 180 is April 15, 2012. Go figure.
Let's see she is a @!$%#ing illegal.They should have kept her law breaking ass there,Love it how Mexicans break the law everyday and nopthing is done about it.But if an American breaks the law we are going to jail.Thats why our government sucks.@!$%# Obama for pandering to these people for votes.
Why so much hate for a girl trying to do things LEGALLY?! She is NOT part of the problem. She can thank all the Illegals for her problems in doing things legally. And for all the hate mongers posts. This is a very bright girl trying to better her life, and doing so in line with our laws.... Why hate her for that?
After all this BS, i think we need to ban all immigration, in fact, no one should be able to enter the united states ever again, not even for sports events, not even for holidays, hell, not even for diplomatic perposes, sorry, foreign ammbassadors, leaders, vacationers, sportspeople and auto racers, looks like we wont be having an american f1 gp, or indycar at quingdao.
ok as a mother of a child who was born in Canada, whose father is an American citizen, she was eligible to file for citizenship from the time she was born. She does not need a green card or a visa. Her father may not have known that this is the case. A person who is born to an American citizen parent is eligible to apply for naturalization right away. It's called an N-400 application. Unless her father was naturalized AFTER she was born. Then it's a whole other ball game. I myself am an immigrant and a naturalized citizen. I did all my own paperwork and had a few similar snags along the way. Immigration into this country is a difficult and confusing process. Unless any one of you have done it yourselves, you have no stones to throw. Once she gets her visa, all she needs to do is file her I-485 for her green card. 5 years later she is eligible for citizenship. She is an intelligent girl and will go far in this country.
I'm happy for her. This just further proves that in the long run justice prevails in this nation. It may take a long time and you may have to jump through a million hoops but in this nation - right has might.