John, Me, and George

I am a male U.S. citizen, born and raised here. In August 2002, after being largely unemployed for more than 2 years as a result of the dot-com bust, I relocated to Taiwan to support myself as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language. In 2004 I got a job as a technical writer in the capital city, Taipei. In July of 2005, I met the love of my life, whom I shall call “John” (not his real name), in Taipei.

Sadly, John, a citizen of Taiwan, relocated to the U.S. for work in December of that year. I didn’t follow him here until March of 2006, after a very painful year of trying to maintain our relationship from both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

Coincidentally, right about the time I met John, a friend and coworker of mine, “George,” (also a U.S. citizen), who had joined the same company just about the time that I did, met a young woman while on vacation in another country and soon fell in love with and married her.

John is on a very limited, “L1b” work visa, which enables him to work for one single company, on contracts that can be renewed for up to 5 years. His company has notified him that his current contract will not be renewed after the end of 2009. At that time, he will have to leave the USA, and I will have to choose between staying with the person I love or the country I love.

Right now, our best hope seems to be Canada, where we could legally marry – IF we can get in. Ironically, my former coworker, George, returned to the USA with his wife about 6 months ago. Because he is male and she is female, they were able to marry, and he was able to sponsor her for permanent residency in this country.

However, because John is male and I am male, we cannot marry, and so I cannot sponsor him for a “green card.” We have a committed, permanent, long-term relationship that is exactly like marriage in every way except in the eyes of current U.S. law. I cannot sponsor John because of the discomfort that many people feel about the nature of our relationship in the abstract. Meanwhile, in reality, John is a highly skilled worker, with a master’s degree in physics and rare expertise in integrated circuitry testing protocols, and our economy is being denied his contributions because as a U.S. citizen I am being denied our constitutional guarantee of “equal protection under the law.”

George and his wife are now living peacefully in another state. John and I, however, are living with the daily stress that comes with not knowing when or where or if we will be able to safely live together in one country without the likelihood that one of us will have to leave at an unpredictable time because of immigration law.