Gerard and Pauline Brikkenaar Van Dijk and their three children had to leave the United States because their visas ran out. Now, red tape and a clerical error are keeping them from returning to Crozet.
The family has been in the Dutch Antilles since October and hoped to return to Crozet, Virginia this week but don’t have the papers to get into the United States.
In a fax to Congressman Tom Perriello’s Charlottesville office, Mr. Brikkenaar Van Diik explains his family’s return was denied by the State Department in March because of a clerical error on the application.
Join the club! I came in the country on a Fiance visa, and thought transition into a greencard would be a cake walk as it was supposed to be.
No way, The INS screwed up massively and it was a nightmare to get things right. They lost all paperwork, the customs at Dulles Airport did not hand me the document/card they were supposed to, "deferred" my entrance (without explanation), and sent the package to a Colorado address that the INS had vacated 10 years prior(!). One hand does not know what the other hand does.
Add on that the passive aggressive attitude of some of the INS clerks (they get picked for that character!). Except for one who suggested a short cut and explained jokingly: you should have walked the desert from Mexico. (but he got spanked by his superior!)
Another Dutch Immigrant with a colorful story about clerical errors and outright misconduct.