“Seven years ago I went to the USA to work. My aunt who lived there invited me to come. Because I didn’t have the money she paid for all my travel expenses. The first year I worked very hard just to pay her back. After a while I met this American girl and we fell in love. When she got pregnant we decided I would officially apply for citizenship. During the process she would be my guarantee. It’s not easy to become and American citizen and at some point I had to go back to Nicaragua to wait for the results. The final step of the process was paying a 600-dollar waiver. Paying a waiver is something like apologizing to the government of the United States for the years you stayed illegally. My application was about to be accepted when I received an email from the Ambassador saying my guarantee had pulled back. I didn’t understand what happened so I called my girlfriend. I asked her what was going on, she said that she got confused. It was too much responsibility and she didn’t wanted to continue with the application. Even though I was devastated I can accept the fact that our relationship is over. My biggest concern is my son. I haven’t seen him since 2010 and I’m afraid I don’t get to see him grow up.”

Nicaragua – Popoyo