Visa mixup ends in joyous reunion
10yearold arrives at SFO after 6 weeks
In a quiet corner of San Francisco International Airport late Thursday, 10yearold Raghad Saleh wept in her mother’s arms.
The Yemeni girl landed in the Bay Area — her new home — after being stranded with strangers in Egypt for six weeks. Raghad had dreamed of this moment, and she recorded her wishes on a video The Chronicle had translated from Arabic (available at bit.ly/30VcC2c).
The girl hugged her sisters tightly before turning toward her mother, Sumayah Albadani. The two held each other in a long embrace.
“I’m so happy I’m reunited with my siblings and mother,” said Raghad in Arabic, through an interpreter. “I can’t describe it.”
The Saleh family shared an emotional reunion Thursday after a frustrating saga that highlighted the complexities of U.S. immigration policy in the age of COVID19.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo granted Raghad a visa this week, after refusing her one in February,
Amir Naim, the family’s attorney, said. Raghad’s mother and two siblings — who received visas in February — arrived in the United States on July 1. They had stayed with the child in Egypt for as long as they could.
The Chronicle featured the Salehs’ story in July as they tried desperately to bring Raghad home, begging the embassy to make an exception for a 10yearold girl. Helping the family were the local chapters of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations and the Yemeni American Association.
“It’s a very happy moment for me and for my community,” said Mohamed Albadani, vice president of the Yemeni American Association, who joined the family at the airport Thursday and worked closely with the family on Raghad’s case. “After waiting one month and a half, and seeing a
10yearold separated from her family, it’s a happy moment for us.”
The family had tried to leave Yemen, their wartorn homeland, for years. Raghad’s father, Abu Bakr Saleh, made it to the United States in 2016, joining his father in San Francisco and preparing to send for Albadani and their children as soon as he was settled. The U.S. Embassy in Yemen had long since closed because of the 5yearold civil war there. So the family traveled to Egypt in October to wait.
Saleh and Albadani have four children: Ahmed, 14, Asma, 12, Raghad, 10, and Maya, 8.
The visas came through in February — all but Raghad’s. The family may never know why.
At first, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo assured the Salehs that it would take only a few weeks to fix the mixup and grant the child a visa. That was before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
In March, the Trump administration suspended visa services at all U.S. embassies and consulates around the world. In June, President Trump signed a proclamation banning most immigration to the U.S. through December, citing high unemployment and public health concerns.
The Salehs are among thousands of families whose lives were upended by the sweeping immigration restrictions. Visas for most workers, visa lotteries and temporary immigration visas have all been curbed. So has most “familybased” immigration, which lets a U.S. citizen or permanent resident sponsor an immediate relative for a green card. That’s the program the Saleh family used.
“It’s a problem that shouldn’t have happened to begin with,” said Naim, referring to the family’s case. “This is a 10yearold girl, she’s not a threat to anybody, she has nothing to do with any of the reasons they’re putting out these proclamations.
“We’re happy that they issued the visa eventually. But there are hundreds of thousands of people in similar situations,” he said.
With their visas just hours from expiring on July 1, Raghad’s mother left for the United States with Ahmed and Asma, leaving Raghad with a neighbor in Cairo until they could all be together again. Saleh had brought Maya to San Francisco in March.
Albadani had asked the embassy in Cairo if she could extend her visa so that she could wait with Raghad in Egypt. But embassy officials refused, forcing Albadani to choose between leaving her daughter or forfeiting her own visa.
“It was the hardest moment of my life,” Albadani told The Chronicle in Arabic in July, speaking through an interpreter.
A representative for the State Department, which oversees U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, declined to comment on Raghad’s case Tuesday, saying that visa records are confidential.
For several weeks in June, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo told Naim that it could not process Raghad’s visa application because of Trump’s immigration crackdown. The embassy gave no time frame for when — or if — it would authorize her departure.
But suddenly, the embassy emailed Naim on Sunday saying there was a visa in Raghad’s name. Her ticket to America. Her ticket to reunite with her family.
Raghad got her visa the next day, and her family hurried to get the girl on a plane. Her father returned to Cairo to accompany Raghad on the flight home. They flew to New York on Wednesday, and to San Francisco on Thursday.
The family plans to make Raghad a special dinner and hopes to go sightseeing throughout San Francisco.
Their story in America now starts, Albadani said.
“It’s like we weren’t here before,” she said. “Now we can start our lives.”
“This is a 10yearold girl, she’s not a threat to anybody, she has nothing to do with any of the reasons they’re putting out these proclamations.”
Amir Naim, attorney for Raghad’s family