Professor fights to take Nepali hubby to US

KATHMANDU, June 18: For years America has battled with how to solve the issue of illegal immigration. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, more than 11 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the United States in 2008. [break]



But those numbers often overshadow the more than 1 million people who legally became US residents last year and the struggles some of them face.



Ashley Kyber-Karki knows all about the struggle. She came to Morgantown two years ago to teach landscape architecture at West Virginia University.



Her job took her to Nepal, where she met her husband Nabin. The two married in 2008 and their son was just born on April 17. But Nabin has not seen him, because thanks to immigration problems, he´s still in Nepal, a US news portal report said.



In Morgantown, Ashley is fighting to bring her husband home.



"We had an amazing whirlwind romance," she said, explaining that because of the strict and lengthy visitation policies Ashley Kyber-Karki and her new husband Nabin decided to get married in Nepal.



"We were told after we were married it would be 15 days for the immigration process," she said.



But that has not been the case. She says the US Department of Homeland Security recently changed the immigration process, which meant filing for two visas plus an expedition application when she learned she was pregnant.



It was denied.



But months later, good news -- she says Nabin was approved.



"We were all very excited," she said of that date back in April, "and everybody started planning parties and that other stuff, and, here it´s June -- so what happened in the meantime? They lost the file. They lost the file twice."



Then, heart-wrenching news.



"You can only touch your husband with your words and he can´t touch his new baby," she explained.



So now they have re-filed the paperwork and Ashley´s mom took time off from her job in South Carolina to help in Morgantown. But the frustration continues.



"To think that we still have so many people in this country illegally," said Betty Anne Kyber, "and when families like this have tried so hard to do it by the right process it´s very disheartening."



But Ashley´s not losing hope that her husband will come to the states soon.



"I´m going to take this baby and put it in his arms and I´ll take the second kiss because he needs to see his son."



Thanks to help from Senator Robert Byrd´s office she has now been told her file will be on the top of the stack at the Vermont Processing Center, where a supervisor is expected to approve it.



But when Nabin will come to the states all depends on when they find his file.

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