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Separated Utah family waits for visa news

February 5th, 2007
by VJ News

It pains Johana Thorsted to see her 2-year-old daughter’s memories of her life in Utah fading. After living in Guatemala for nearly five months, the child has forgotten how to speak English, and Thorsted worries those fading memories could include her daughter’s father, Aaron Thorsted.

"She doesn’t remember anything about the U.S.," Thorsted said in a telephone interview. "She speaks Spanish, she doesn’t speak English anymore. It’s hard to see my baby forget everything."

Thorsted, who had been undocumented while living in Utah, returned to Guatemala with her young daughter to apply for an immigrant visa.

Neither she nor her husband thought it would take so long. Thorsted was pregnant when she left. Now she says one of the hardest things to deal with is that her husband has yet to meet his infant daughter, who was born in Guatemala. Yet, she says, the sacrifice is worth it.

"I have my life in the United States, I have my husband and my kids," she said. "That is why I want to fight to have a visa."

Her husband, Aaron Thorsted, said he started the application process for Johana’s legal status shortly after the couple married in 2003, but it was put on hold when he was called to active duty with his Army Reserve unit and served in Iraq.

As a U.S. citizen, Aaron was able to apply for his wife’s immigration visa. But because Johana Thorsted had been living in the United States illegally, she faces a 10-year bar before she can return.