- Joined
- Aug 20, 2022
- Messages
- 28,599
- Points
- 113
In 2018, I asked my then girlfriend to move to San Francisco with me. She agreed (without having ever been to the US).
In 2026, we've been married for 8 years, and we are now brand new permanent residents.
It's been a difficult time in this country. Sometimes, people ask us why we haven't left yet. Our decision to stay and invest in this place is linked to how much it has given us. Our careers, grad school, opportunities, and most of all, a safe and welcoming home here in San Francisco for our little trans-national, queer family.
Next month, my wife graduates with a Master's in clinical psychology and she will be a therapist in San Francisco / Oakland who speaks 6 languages and who has lived in 6 countries; she's going to do such amazing work for people in our community for people from all walks of life.
The Bay Area made both of our careers and lives possible, and never once asked us where we were really from.
Every day, we benefit from the public services that we enjoy as California residents: our libraries are excellent, our public universities are great (she had a great time at a CSU). Our recent experience with USCIS showed us that there are federal officers who deeply care for immigrants like us, who take their work very seriously in spite of all of the difficulties we see in federal service right now. It's not an easy process, but we were thankful for the professionalism and care we saw when we had to interface with the system.
