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Denied
Submitted by: Keith and Akiko Campbell
Bradenton, FloridaBusiness Professional and Graphic Designer. We have two small children and both currently own small businesses.
Last year (2007) my wife and I were faced with the climax of a battle with the US government over the charge of fraud and a resulting visa issue. Let me preface this by saying that we’re two people with no criminal record; Akiko’s never even had a parking ticket in her life! At the time we’d resided in the United States for 8 years, in a legitimate marriage, and were blessed with two young boys (ages 4 and 16 months at the time), but due to a faulty timeline and faulty advice years ago, and both from the US Embassy in Tokyo, we planned and executed a marriage before my Japanese wife received her fiancée visa. The government, in turn, claimed we defrauded them when she immigrated, married with that visa, even though we did what they instructed us to do at every turn.
Then at the second green card interview (green card was denied for a second time), the officer said, “I have a solution for you. All you have to do is reapply for a married visa, go back to Japan, pick it up, and re-immigrate to the US and all of this will be solved.” We thought great! A solution finally, and after much prayer and thought and despite our lawyer’s adamant advice otherwise, we decided we’d rather not be allowed to re-enter the US and live our lives out in the open somewhere else than live in the US illegally.
Akiko and the boys left in Jan 2007 for a Feb 2007 interview. At the interview the officer briefly reviewed her records and here’s what he said, “What makes you think after 8 years we’re going to give you a visa when Tampa USCIS wouldn’t give you one?”
Akiko replied, “Because the officer in the US said this is what we need to do to clear this up once and for all.” He said, “I’m sorry, you misunderstood – denied!” and she was shuffled out of the embassy. Now shes exiled to the streets of Tokyo with two young US citizen boys not allowed to re-apply for entry for 10 years, without regard for their well-being, and no home (she was staying with her parents 3 hours away!).
We were devastated, but became determined to beat this after 8 years of fighting. We formulated a plan and a team, developed a website, and made it into the public’s consciousness through the media. We were successful in making it on TV, newspapers, and talk radio every week for about 5 months. As a part of that we were also featured in an Associated Press story that went worldwide during Memorial Day weekend 2007 to 51 countries and every major newspaper in the country.
After the successful execution of our plan of exposing what happened to the world through the media and following up the success with individual communication through email and the website, we were granted a visa in early Aug 2007. The whole affair ended in storybook fashion with a reception at Tampa Airport. 30 of our closest supporters and friends greeted us along with the local newspaper reporter and Bay News 9 TV reporter and cameraman, as well as a rented limo ride home the last hour of the trip from Tampa to Bradenton, Florida.
Why am I writing to you about this? Because I used faith in God and the principals of “The Secret” to do it. Never did I doubt we’d be successful, not even once. This vision of what to do came to me instinctively. I became aware of the principles of “The Law of Attraction” early in our ordeal, but put the ideals to work before I’d even read your book. I’ve even written a chapter in an upcoming book outlining the principals and how I was able to make it work. The whole ordeal magically played itself out, and I see no reason why the magic will stop!