Yar Zar and Kenny's Immigration Journey

Thank you everyone for coming to this page! My name is Kenny Kruse, and this fundraiser is for me and my partner, Yar Zar Min.

As I write this, he is on a flight from Singapore to San Francisco. On January 29, Yar Zar was approved for a fiance visa. In the middle of the night, two days later, Myanmar had a military coup. The last 27 days have been overwhelming: Yar Zar has been protesting, helping to guard his neighborhood at night, finishing his job at an international non-profit for child protection, and saying goodbye to family and friends. I have been calling and emailing congressional offices, embassies, airlines, and journalists (here is an article in them Magazine  , here is one in the San Francisco Chronicle , and more are coming) trying to figure out any way to get him out of Myanmar before it became impossible. Thanks to all of your help, he is on his way here. As I write this in San Francisco, taking this Friday off from my teaching job to figure out some last minute arrival arrangements, I thank you for considering helping us, and I thank the friends who put this page together. After this isolating year, it has been a miracle to witness so many people come together to try to support us. Thank you, and all our love.

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We are a group of friends, raising funds for our dear friend, Kenny Kruse, and his fiance, Yar Zar Min. Kenny and Yar Zar have overcome tremendous obstacles in the last five years to be together. Two days after they finally got their finance visa approved, a military coup in Myanmar threatened to derail their dreams. 


This epic romance is an inspiration to us all. In fact, their story made the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle and was featured in Them Magazine  if you want to read more.  The stories also have been published on  San Francisco Examiner and Pink News. The Observer is also doing a story and we’ll link it when it comes out.


Their love blossomed in Myanmar soon after they met in 2016. Theirs was forbidden love under Myanmar’s anti-gay laws. Dating was risky for them both, but it would take more than the threat of life imprisonment and beatings at the hands of the police to keep them from falling in love. And soon they knew that they wanted a life together. This would have remained a dangerous dream if the couple were to stay in Myanmar, so they planned to take their relationship international. To make this dream a possibility, they filed for a fiance visa in 2018. Kenny moved home and then to San Francisco in 2019 to create more stability for their new life. The long distance relationship and the legalities were more arduous than expected, but he persevered.

Despite all obstacles, Kenny and Yar Zar persisted and remained devoted partners.

Trump’s Muslim Ban, although disheartening and traumatic, couldn’t diminish their will power to reunite.

A pandemic, although difficult and frightening, couldn’t extinguish their hope to be once again together and face life’s challenges in tandem.

A military coup that plunged Myanmar into turmoil couldn’t thwart their will to find their way to each other in the middle of chaos. 



They stood strong for each other at every turn. They never gave up hope. Even at times when they each cried in solidarity. Even when they feared that every goodbye, that every phone call, could be a forever farewell. Even when long-term separation pressed on their hearts, threatening to crush their souls. Even when all odds were against them and their love. 

And now, finally, after years of separation and texting and calling across a fourteen-and-a-half-hour time zone difference and astronomical legal fees, and a military coup two days after their fiance visa was granted, Yar Zar has a plane ticket for February 24th. 

But this is just the beginning of what Kenny and Yar Zar have ahead of them in the U.S. 

When the couple is reunited, Yar Zar won’t be legally allowed to work. First, he will have to quarantine. Then, after getting married on Zoom, there will be a 90 day waiting period for their change of status, and because of Covid, some USCIS offices are still behind in their processing. The wait time could be longer. Optimistically, four months into his stay, he will be allowed to begin to look for jobs, and optimistically, it will only take a few months of resume sending and interviewing for paychecks to roll in. But that’s still seven months without income and again, in this pandemic time, it could all take longer.

Kenny is a teacher living in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the world. He had been a teacher in Utah, but he did not make enough there to meet sponsorship requirements. If he could choose a less expensive city, he would. Because of Yar Zar’s necessary quarantine, he needs to pay for extra space on his modest income. Health insurance. Not to mention food. Eventually transportation. The most conservative calculations of this cost will be over $14,000. The flight was $1,600. The visa and lawyer fees alone add up to $6,000 (and they have already spent over $6,000). We ask, hopefully, for a little more that we may put toward their wedding. 

It is life and love saving money, the most worthy thing we can imagine using a gift on, and we hope you will join us.

Thanks for reading this and for any help you can provide. You will be a part of a whole community of people of friends and family supporting two amazing people and supporting love in a most terrible time.



Please feel free to donate any amount, every bit adds up, and please share on social media! Facebook, Instagram, wherever you share, let’s get this story out there!