Every hopeful Juan de la Cruz
Lines up and wait for his turn while
Uttering a silent prayer that
Somehow God will make a miracle
In the consul's decision to grant him a
Visa, visitor or immigrant, for such is
Everyone's dream to get one.
Maria dela Cruz and her son Joe are in a long queue waiting for their turn to be called for finger scanning before an interview with a consul. Inside the waiting lounge, "No 273", the PA system announced. Mother and son went to the booth that was assigned with their number.
"Magandang hapon", (in English, good afternoon), the consul greeted.
"Good afternoon sir," answered Maria and her son with a bright smile on their face. The consul tapped the keyboard of his PC.
"Your husband works in the US, right?", the consul asked.
Hesitantly, she answered "yes, sir"!
"How many kids do you have?, the consul went on.
"Three sir and he is the youngest", Maria answered while simultaneously pointing to her son beside her.
"How old are you?", addressing the question to Joe.
"Fifteen sir", Joe answered smartly. The consul smiled. And Joe smiled back at him.
Maria uttered a silent prayer. "Lord, please, make a miracle. I badly need a Visa, I want to also visit my husband there once in a while, and see some other relatives I haven't seen for quite a time now". Her palms were sweating, she looked ashen and nervous.
She jolted in a surprise when the consul suddenly spoke. "As of now", the consul said, "I can see that you can't establish to me of any strong evidence that you will likely return back to the Philippines".
"But sir", Maria spoke, almost in tears. The consul moved his head in complete disapproval while handing back to Maria their passports and a blue paper which he marked with an X stating: You did not establish that your social, family and economic ties outside of the US are sufficient enough to overcome the presumption of immigrant intent.
"But sir, can we apply again?" her disappointed spirit tried to put up a brave front at the moment though deep inside her, she wanted to cry hard already.
"Of course, you can, for as long as you can prove to me that your status have changed already", the consul answered.
Maria picked up their passports and the blue paper, looked around her for the last time and felt as if all eyes were on them for being denied a visitor's visa.
"Thank you sir!", she uttered with pain in her voice and took her son's hands and left the place.
Outside the embassy, she saw the sad look in her son's eyes. And he whispered, "Mom, you should have denied that Dad is working there, because that might be the reason that they denied us of our visa?". "No, son, we couldn't lie, they can see it in their database, and the more we will lie the more we will no longer have a chance to apply for the next time around", Maria answered as if to pacify her son's disappointments.
"Mom, I can no longer have the chance to see my Dad in his workplace and our relatives there. And my dream of going to Disneyland with my friends and cousins", Joe uttered, almost in tears.
"Well, honey that's life. Getting a visa is an elusive dream. Don't worry, we'll try again next year and hopefully, God will touch the heart of the consul who'll gonna interview us by then", Maria said to her son. Joe just gave her mother a poignant smile, took her Mom's hand and they left the embassy grounds hand in hand, smiling at each other sadly.
They took a cab and on their way home, tears rolled down Maria's cheeks while her son looked outside the cab in deep thoughts, thinking when will his dream can come true.
(I wrote about this prompt, maybe in a an unusual way to illustrate how we Filipinos really consider being granted a US Immigrant or Non-Immigrant Visa a dream come true, especially when you have relatives living there and you wish to join them even just a few months only.)
