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Archive for December, 2007

U.S. border keeps young family apart

Sunday, December 30th, 2007

As a Dungeons and Dragons player, Sean Buller of Burnaby is used to fighting imaginary foes.

But nothing prepared him for his real-life fight with the most formidable of opponents: U.S. red tape.

Buller, 31, met an American woman playing the online fantasy game three years ago, and within months, she flew from Avon Park, near Orlando, Fla., to meet him.

They obviously hit it off.

Eight months later and eight months pregnant, Kim, 37, quit her job as a specialized pediatric nurse and moved to Canada in time for their first child, Jonathan, to be born on Aug. 23, 2005.

“Pretty much, we decided to settle down here in Vancouver. But [six months later], she got a phone call from her old boss offering her job back with a huge raise,” said Buller.

Kim had been promised only two shifts a week at local hospitals, and her Florida pay was more than Buller earned as an inside sales representative in the industrial refrigeration business.

The pair moved back to Florida, where they could buy a 241-square-metre house with a pool for $275,000 US, less than a third of what it would cost them here.

“Seriously, it [was] a no-brainer,” Buller said of the move.

Not wanting to overstay his six-month visitor visa, Buller returned to Canada in July 2006 to properly apply to emigrate, with Kim by then pregnant with their second child.

A Florida immigration lawyer had said they’d have an easier time if they married, advice that they took — on June 23, 2006 — but which Buller now considers bad advice.
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Archive for December, 2007

U.S. border keeps young family apart

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