Reuniting the Riehn Family
I’m starting this GoFund me for the Riehn Family. They are separated right now due to a visa getting declined which prevents the mother Bente from being able to travel to the US for three years. They have a 14 month old son, a baby girl that is due in March and her husband also has a 12 year old boy. This means that either she will have to raise their baby boy and girl by herself in Holland or her husband will have to say goodbye to his 12 year old son in Texas. The money from this go fund me will help pay for documents needed for an appeal and an immigration lawyer. Anything helps thanks so much for taking the time to read.❤️
“I’m writing this letter because i’m looking for help to reunite my family. My husband and son are US citizens, i am a Dutch citizen. My visa got rejected and i got a penalty for overstaying my ESTA. This means that for the next three years i am not allowed to go to the US. All we want is for our family to be together.”
Here’s our story.
“In sept 2014 i came to the US on a student visa, to do an exchange program at ASU, San Angelo. I made some friends that i now call family and after i moved back to Holland, i flew back to the US several times to see those friends. On one of those trips i went to a bible study and one of the organisers was a man that is now my husband and the father of my children. Him and i started dating long distance. We even got married and had a baby (both in the Netherlands), all while still being in a long distance relationship. We started the process for an immigrant visa application in may 2019.
After our son was born we both felt like we needed to be together more. When our son was 6 weeks old him and I went to Texas to be with my husband/his daddy. We stayed for a month. I then went back to
Holland and sold my house, my car, everything. The end of december we flew to Texas once again to be together as a family. We were gonna stay for almost three months on an ESTA. Our flight back to Holland was on March 26th 2019. A couple days before that flight, we got word that the flight was cancelled due to Covid-19. We immediately contacted USCIS (even before the 90 ESTA days were over) and asked what to do. They said i would be fine since i entered the country legally, and it wasn’t my fault i couldn’t leave. Then when there were flights going again, they told me to get a work and travel permit (I-145 and I-131). These applications got rejected twice.
We have had contact with USCIS numerous times, NVC a couple times, an immigrant lawyer and even customs. It seems like every time the person on the phone refers us to one of the other parties. After talking to so many parties, we were told that the best thing to do was to go to the Netherlands, do the interview and complete the visa process. So me and our son flew to Holland, and Dec 8th I had my visa Interview.
My visa got rejected based on that i overstayed my ESTA. There was also a penalty that followed, i am not allowed to go
back to the US for three years. The only party that can waive this penalty is the USCIS.
Right now i am in the Netherlands with our son and my husband is in Texas. We are staying with family for the time being, but we are not able to stay here for much longer. My husband and I are also expecting our second child, a little girl in march. With our first child I was alone the whole pregnancy, and we were so happy to be able to do this together this time. We have some time pressure because after January i won’t be allowed to fly anymore because i’ll be too far along.
If there is any way you could help reunite our family, we will be forever grateful. I miss my
husband but i’m especially sad for our kids, they need their daddy. Our little boy asks for his daddy all day long. My heart breaks into a thousand pieces thinking about one of these three children not being able to grow up with their dad.”
Thank you for taking the time to read this
Any help is appreciated. Please also keep our family in your prayers ❤️
