FACTS posts opinions with a wide range of viewpoints to encourage constructive debate.
Kostadin Gramatikov, who has been an emigrant in the USA for nearly 30 years, contacted the editorial office of FAKTI. He wrote us a letter in which he tells in detail what hardships he continues to go through in order to return to Bulgaria with his second wife, who is Chinese.
– Mr. Gramatikov, why did you turn to FACTS to tell your story?
– I’m looking for help to solve the case.
– Tell me about yourself. How did you get to the US?
– I am a product of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and one of the best students of the former Minister of Education, Academician Asen Hadjiolov. 1992 was not good for biological sciences in Bulgaria, most qualified and experienced scientists left the country, including my teacher Dr. Oleg Georgiev. After several years of financial struggles at the BAS, I received a scholarship in the canton of Zurich (Switzerland) and 3 years later defended my second doctoral thesis (April 1995) at the University of Zurich. The financing situation in Bulgaria was still not improving and I looked for new opportunities in the US. So it happened.
– This is how you get to San Diego…
– Yes. I have lived here for 27 years and am part of the most innovative biotech center in the US. A few years later, after I entered the US, the government granted me citizenship under the category of “Extraordinary Ability” because I had developed vaccines against HIV and cancer. In summary, during my years in California I had the opportunity to work in top companies, with the smartest scientists and the smartest business developers. I went back to another university in San Diego to get my business degree, which enhanced my ability to integrate science and innovation. During all these years, there was not a single day when I did not think about how to return to Bulgaria.
– But you decide to come back?
– I expect that life in Bulgaria has improved, and most importantly, that Bulgarian biotechnology and medicine can benefit from my extensive knowledge and experience. In the summer of this year (May 2023), I was invited to join Varna Medical University and head the Department of Technology and Innovation. I was very excited to think that I could go back and start a new life in my country! But…
– And so begins your saga…
– The reason for the problems is that I married a girl born in China. In order to enter Bulgaria with my wife, I had to secure an endless amount of documents, each with an apostille from the state of California, which took more than 3 months from the original intention, not to mention the cost in dollars. The most interesting thing is that even after several dozen email inquiries sent to the Bulgarian Consulate in Los Angeles with details on HOW to get a visa for my wife – I was not able to get a single comprehensive answer. On the contrary, I had to discover over a period of 3 months through trial and error how difficult and contradictory the process was. Despite the fact that I have a valid Bulgarian international passport, I had to wait a month in the city of Dobrich (where I was born) for them to receive confirmation from the Ministry of Justice that I still have Bulgarian citizenship and have not renounced it, even though there is a confirmation from my passport!
Overall, the procedures were a step back at least 3 steps that were required before applying for a D visa for my wife (also found herself stuck in the completely frozen US immigration process after Donald Trump’s “immigration reform”). All these 3 months were “jumping through the hoops” of the bureaucracy to an unprecedented degree. I had to postpone my meeting at Varna University three times. It was incredibly difficult for me to explain this whole inexplicable journey through illogical procedural loops to my colleagues there.
Last month (October 13, 2023) I was finally able to apply for the long awaited D visa for my wife. Among several documents, I also had to submit a residential address.
– And this becomes a case study?
– I never had personal property in Bulgaria, because the apartment I lived in then belonged to my parents, and my only living relative is my mother, who is elderly and cannot help with any documents.
I provided four addresses, including one to a close friend in Dobrich, where I was born, and even a potential rental address in Varna. How could I have a permanent address after 30 years away from home? The Bulgarian consulate in Los Angeles did not warn me about this address requirement or set a specific requirement before or during the application!
After 30 days of waiting for the visa (a total of 4 months since the beginning of all this), on Friday (November 13) I contacted migration officials in the city of Dobrich, who were looking for my place of residence at my mother’s house in Balchik, scaring her with their uninvited visit and a Gestapo interrogation of my past, leaving an impression on my poor mother’s mind that I must have become a criminal in violation of Bulgaria’s immigration law! It seems the immigration officials acted on so called “limited knowledge” of an address I lived at many years ago that is no longer owned by my mother – despite the fact that I submitted four addresses.
The immigration officials claim that the Bulgarian Consulate in Los Angeles did NOT send all four addresses for verification that I provided during my application – but only one – used to issue my passport a few years ago (No. 1 Kubadin Street). This started a new cascade of documents and notaries who recommended me, on my own initiative, to send directly to the Bulgarian consulate in Los Angeles, a declaration of secured housing and address for registration.
The consulate immediately responded that this was not the correct order! In a few words, these immigration officials sent me on a “wild goose chase” and masterfully shifted the responsibility onto my shoulders – sending me into a dead end!
So after a total of over 4 months of waiting for the visa (which I was told would be ready in a month), the process seemed thrown out and no visible resolution could be foreseen!
After all this harrowing experience, I ask myself: “Is this all and why no one cares, no one knows what to do, all communications are cut off, no one respects their neighbors, or am I just being punished for being so many years away from home?!’
When I shared this with colleagues in other countries…comparisons are impossible. For example, the Chinese government has developed special programs for advanced returnees (doctoral students called “turtles”) not only for quick placement, but also for financial incentives and rewards for their return, bringing all their experience gained in the US to give their share in their country’s progress. Romania is a similar example – according to another colleague, Romania only offers a one-month transition period for professionals in my category.
I have been offered positions in China where I will be elevated to the position of “Caucasian Tsar”. In Romania I could join any university without all these problems in a much shorter time. And I am not a citizen of either China or Romania. Why should I go to countries I don’t care about? It is tempting to ask: What makes the above two countries (China and Romania) value their own citizens or even foreign citizens more than Bulgaria? I feel deeply ashamed when I have to explain to my colleagues what problems I have to go through to return to my COUNTRY with the intention of contributing something useful. I also feel that my rights as a citizen and a family man are being violated by an invisible enemy spread across departments and procedures! I shared my bitter experience with the Bulgarian diaspora and heard that my experience so far is not surprising, that many have gone through different but similar painful journeys. However, this did not bring me any comfort. Then I heard that perhaps there might be someone in the Foreign Office who would hear me out, take in my terrible story and step in to stop its whole maddening development. Others have recommended me to find a Bulgarian media to publish this painful memoir… So I hope that in the current government of Bulgaria there are new people who have seen how the rest of the world works (not to say the most effective countries). And since they are new, they may want to improve and bring Bulgaria to a different image and level of work, as opposed to stagnation. I hope you can understand our great trouble and help us to resolve the situation as soon as possible!
PS: We wrote a letter to our consulate in Los Angeles and they responded to us within the next day as follows: Due to reasons for the security of personal data, as well as sensitive information related to procedures and files for visa applications for the Republic of Bulgaria, the general consulate is not able to share such information without appropriate official instructions.
You have the opportunity to contact our colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and through which you can request the relevant information in the proper manner.
PS2: The consulate in Los Angeles responded within a day, and last week we sent a letter to the Foreign Office. We don’t have an answer yet.
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Rating 4.6 from 26 votes.
2023-11-28 08:06:06
#Life #existence #emigrant #USA #return #Bulgaria.. #Kostadin #Gramatikov #front #FACTS
