Frustrated Ghanaian ‘locked’ in Ghana due to delay in visa process loses American wife

A Ghanaian, Felix, who is married to an American but is currently domiciled in Ghana, has lost his wife in Florida, United States of America (USA).

However, he is unable to travel to organize the funeral for her late wife due to delays in the visa acquisition process at the United States Embassy in Accra.

Felix is pleading with the embassy, especially the Ambassador Virginia Palmer, to fast-track the visa process to enable him and several others suffering the same ordeal to travel to the US to organize the funeral and the others also to see their spouses.

His spokesperson who is also waiting for his visa to travel to attend to his wife, Kelvin Mensah told 3news.com in an exclusive interview on Friday, October 21 that “our visa cases are not be expedited. If you call for an expedition they don’t mind you, it is very frustrating, we are approaching Christmas and this is our second time pleading with the US embassy and the Ambassador to fast-track the process.

“They should look at Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, they have no backlog, we in Ghana, what have we done?

“One of us, Felix lost his wife and he can’t travel, this is horrible. We are legally married to American citizens.”

Earlier, Kelvin Mensah indicated in an interview with 3News on Thursday, August 11 that some of them had their American spouses given birth but they have not set their eyes on their babies for over two years.

“We are here (TV3 premises) today about our visa issues, we have pleaded with the embassy to also look at our cases. We are married to Americans and the way the visa process is going, is quite long, and as a married man or woman, there are some things you do with your partner, all these things you are not getting any longer.

“Also, some of our spouses are sick, some have given birth that they need their spouses to be with them which we are not getting that privilege all because the embassy is saying that there are backlogs and there are Covid cases.

“If you look at West Africa for instance, Nigeria is in 2022, Benin is in 2022, Togo is in 2022 and they have fewer Covid cases but only Ghana is where the problem is.

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“So, we don’t know, we are pleading with the Ambassador and the entire workers to have mercy on us because Togo are not having backlog,  Benin and Cote d’Ivoire are more than us but they are moving but Ghana is not moving.”

He added “So we are pleading with them that they should have sympathy on us for us to also know how it feels to be with our spouses. They themselves, know how it feels and the Ambassador herself has married an Immigrant before, so they all know the dictates and everything.

“We are pleading with them to temper justice with mercy, that is all that we are seeking for. That they should attend to us and work on our cases too because we are tired of the long waiting. Some are waiting for two years, three years, or four years, which is bad, you have to wait for years before you see your spouse which is quite frustrating.

“It is true you can let your spouse come but not all of them can come because some are working, based on their work they can’t come so we are pleading with the embassy to also look at the spouses and work on our case.

“We are Ghanaians and we are married to Americans, we can say that we are Americans because marriage makes you become a citizen of another country, we are like them, we are Americans, so they should come and look at Americans who are married to Americans  and help us because we are tired of long waiting.”

Another spokesperson for the group, Amoako Richard explained that prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, one would only wait for two months and get the interview letter as part of the visa process but at the moment, he said, one has to wait for over two years to receive just the letter.

“Basically, Americans per se believe in the family system and then all we are saying is that it is all about family because you can’t get married to someone who lives elsewhere, long-distance marriage, you have children, you have wives there, you have husbands over there and then the emotional support, psychologically, it is actually dawning on us.

“How will you feel when your wife is abroad and then your wife has given birth and for about a year or two years, you haven’t even seen your son or your daughter, you haven’t even touched your son or daughter, you don’t even feel how he or she looks like?

“It is all about video calls but video calls are not what we want, what we want is that we will be together, and plan the future because you can’t plan the future when both of you are in separate countries, your future can never be bright. Moreover, it is also making a lot of people here in Ghana not able to plan their lives very well. This is the case, you know that you are supposed to join your wife or husband or daughter.

“There are some people with us who have children who are sick, it is not easy, American system believes in families and as they believe in families they should allow us or help us to go through the whole system so that we will also in our spouses so that we will all have that American dream that better American family system they have been always preaching about.

“It is just a plea that we are making to the Honourable Ambassador that she should try as much as possible to fast-track the process so that one by one we can go and join our spouses.”

He added “We are more than five hundred, almost all of us are waiting for interview letters, some of us have waited for twenty-four months, twenty-five months, twenty-six months.

“Under normal circumstances, before Covid, you could only wait for  like two months  and you get your interview letter  and you go for an interview  and are given the visa and then you join your spouse  but now one has to wait for over twenty months.”

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Source:3news.com