I created this private web page so that those who are responsible and/or influential regarding the issuing of a visa for our daughter Eher Kai might be able availed of some insight into our family and our situation.We hope that you will be willing to take the time to read the following and we ask for your help, however large or small, in helping ensure our success in obtaining a visa for our daughter to be with us in the USA.
This is our family, my wife SreyPov and I, our two children (Eher and Kevin), my parents (Dave and Louise Grobl, center) and my brother (Steve Grobl, right).
In order for us to provide a quality education for our adopted daughter, we need to get her to the USA. This will provide her with the same educational opportunity as Kevin, our biological son. Of course, we also want our children and their grandparents to share this time precious time of life together. My Father is 90 years old and my mother 85.
Christmas 2017
Christmas 2016
Christmas 2015
The three images above were taken on our Christmas vacations in Illinois in 2017, 2016 and 2015. Our daughter Eher, has received three consecutive tourist visas to visit the USA (Dec 2015, 2016 and 2017). Following each of the three trips we returned to Cambodia, so that the children could continue their homeschooling curriculum with our private teacher, Rosella Diamante, a certified teacher from the Philippines.
Our children’s formal education started in Siem Reap Cambodia when we enrolled the children in the Siem Reap International School to begin first grade. The Siem Reap International School, considered the top school in Siem Reap, was unsatisfactory to us.
Since Siem Reap International School didn’t live up to our expectations, after the children’s first year was finished, we hired Ms. Rosella Diamante as our private teacher and set up a dedicated learning space in our home.
The photos below show Ms Diamante teaching Kevin and Eher in our homeschool classroom
Miss Diamante has done an excellent job teaching Kevin and Eher but socialization and a more competitive, immersive environment including a true “school experience” are areas that we cannot address effectively with our current set up in Cambodia.
Given these circumstances, we’ve decided that it would be best for their future success to enroll both of our children in a private, Illinois parochial school; The All Saints Catholic Academy.
All Saints Academy is in the same town that my brother and I grew up in and where my parents and my brother still live. Attending All Saints Academy will not only fulfill our goals of providing our children with an excellent education, but it will also provide the opportunity for our entire family to be together for the foreseeable future.
I’d like to share some additional important information about us:
In early July 2018, my wife SreyPov received her Green Card and is in Illinois with our son Kevin preparing to get Kevin ready for the fall semester of school, while I stay with Eher in Cambodia as we prepare for her visa.
It is our understandingthat the USA does not currently recognize Cambodian to USA adoptions because Cambodia has yet to meet stringent international adoption safeguards.
Please note that we have never violated nor would we even consider doing anything other than to follow the proper procedures with regard to immigration laws and our families long-term interests.
Over the past 5 years, we have diligently followed the letter-or -the-law, complied with each and every rule and prepared copious amounts of paperwork for my wife’s 4 non-immigrant visas (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017) as well as her recent immigrant visa (without the help of a lawyer). We have also worked successfully through three non-immigrant visas for our daughter, Eher, but unfortunately, our last request was denied, which really surprised us, given our proven track record of compliance since 2014. This is why we are quite worried, and going through all the effort to create and document our story to explain our situation to those in whose hands our child’s and our family’s fate is held.
Please note that like so many others, our long-term goal is to get citizenship for my wife SreyPov (who now has a green card and is living in USA) and to get citizenship for our adopted daughter Eher, thus bringing our family back together under one roof.
I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it is for a 10-year-old girl who was denied a visa to visit the USA for the summer and has now been separated from her beloved sibling, all the while, wondering why her brother can go to USA but she can’t.
As parents, it’s heartbreaking and difficult to try to explain to an adopted child why her brother can go to USA whenever he wants but she can’t.
As you can see in the photo above, Eher has been with us ever since birth and we’ve always strived to make her feel as loved and as important as our biological child.
Eher and Kevin are brother and sister, inseparable playmates since birth and throughout the formative years of early childhood, sharing each and every day together.
Eher was, of course, devastated when she found out she wasn’t going to be able to go to the USA with her brother for the summer and look at possible schools to attend. She cried all the way from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap after leaving the Embassy and we really didn’t have a good answer for her as to why.
Eher’s grandfather was heartbroken as well when he found out Eher could not visit for the summer. My father, as all of us, has fallen in love with this amazing little girl who so loves her adopted family. When she’s in the USA, Eher is my father’s constant companion, going with him to his doctor appointments and dialysis treatments. Turning 90 years old this year, you can appreciate that he and his granddaughter have precious little time left to spend together.
We had fully expected that Eher could spend the summer in the USA, on a tourist visa, then make contact with a school like All Saints and make arrangements for her to come.
Maybe we were ignorant, naive, or uninformed but going into our appointment with the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, to obtain Eher’s 4th B1B2 visa, we pretty much assumed after all this time and proven track record, that the USCIS would see that we are good, law-abiding people and be granted permission to go visit the USA.
Now we’re quite frightened that something terrible will happen when we try to apply for her immigrant visa. So, again this is the reason for this plea and this extensive insight into our situation.
So it is with this that I complete our family’s humble request for your assistance in helping and ensuring that our daughter will receive her visa as soon as possible so that we can give Eher her best opportunity to achieve the “Great American Dream”, something that we, as Americans, were so very fortunate to inherit.
Sincerely, Karl Grobl
