By Associated Press, Published: July 1
FORT
LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Bulgarian graduate student and his American husband are
the first gay couple in the nation to have their application for immigration
benefits approved after the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriages, their
lawyer said.
The approval
means Traian Popov, here on a student visa, will be able to apply for a green
card, and eventually U.S. citizenship. But he won’t be able to work or visit
his family back home for at least another three to six months while his
application benefits are being be processed. And his marriage to Julian Marsh,
performed in New York, still won’t be recognized in Florida where they live.
“It’s
unbelievable how that impacts you,” Marsh told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“They make you feel more and more like a second-class citizen and they don’t
want you. And that’s how I feel about Florida.”
Two days after
the Supreme Court struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal
benefits to married gay couples, Marsh and Popov were notified Friday afternoon
that their green card petition was approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services.
The U.S.
Department of Homeland Security could not immediately confirm Monday whether
this case was the first. Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday the government
would start reviewing applications for green cards and other immigration
benefits for same-sex couples in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Popov and
Marsh’s lawyer, Lavi Soloway of The DOMA Project, said his organization filed
about 100 green card petitions for same-sex couples since 2010 and expects more
to be approved in the next few days.
Lawyers say the
ruling would help same-sex couples who are running out of options or are facing
deportations.
“Now all of
those cases can go forward in the way they should with the government
respecting the fact that there is a legally recognizable marriage there,” said
Laura Lichter, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
There are
roughly 36,000 couples in the country in which one person is a U.S. citizen and
one is not, according to Immigration Equality, a nonprofit organization that
handles immigration issues for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender couples.
In the first
three days after DOMA was struck down, the group received 1,276 inquiries to
its legal hotline — roughly the same number they received in all of 2012.
“We are still
getting more volume and expect by the end of July to be around 3,000,” said
Rachel T. Biven, the group’s executive director.
The Supreme
Court ruling is clear for same-sex couples who live in the 13 states that allow
same-sex marriages, but for couples like Marsh and Popov who traveled to
another state to get married, the latest victory for marriage equality is
bittersweet.
“We would like
our marriage to be recognized even in a state where it wasn’t performed in,”
Popov said. “We want civil recognition.”
Florida voters
approved a constitutional amendment in 2008 banning same-sex marriages, and it
will take approval from 60 percent of voters to overturn it if the issue is put
on the ballot again.
The couple said
they met in 2011 at a friend’s party and began dating shortly after.
“We just really
liked each other and I knew this was the man I wanted to be with,” Marsh said.
Six months later, he asked Popov to move in and by 2012 they were married in
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Popov, who is
studying for a master’s degree in social sciences, was able to remain in the
U.S. as long as he was enrolled in school. When he graduated, though, he would
have had to leave the country if DOMA was not struck down.
“I wanted to
stay with him forever in the country that we chose to be in,” Marsh said. And
the pair began planning their next move — both have a European background and
Marsh is also a Canadian citizen.
But the couple
wanted to stay in Fort Lauderdale, where they live with their two Yorkshire
terriers. So they reached out to The DOMA Project, which works to stop
deportations and separations of gay couples caused by the Defense of Marriage
Act.
“I started
crying,” said attorney and DOMA Project co-founder Lavi Soloway of when he
found out that not only DOMA was overturned, but that Marsh and Popov would be
able to stay together in the U.S. He said he was working to help dozens of
other couples facing similar separations.
Popov said the
couple feels they’ve been vindicated.
“It’s still
overwhelming, and we would like to make a difference in Florida,” Marsh said.
___
Associated
Press writer Alicia Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.
Follow Suzette
Laboy on Twitter: @SuzetteLaboy
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