Brandon Boey and Cristina Catuna are two of the many BYU students planning their nuptials amid finals, projects and graduation announcements. Choosing wedding colors and designing a cake would be enough work for this second-year law student and graduating senior, as it would any BYU couple. But they also have to worry about changing Catuna's immigrant status and trying to bring her family to Utah for the wedding.

Catuna is an international student from Romania.

One large problem Boey and Catuna have faced is the denial of visas for Catuna's family. Numerous Catunas have been deemed "flight risks." For example, the family decided that it would be best for her brother and cousin, among the only English-speakers, to represent the family at their daughter's wedding reception. All was well until the visa application interview.

"The lady that we talked with was [American], bored to death, snuffy, watching her cell phone all the time," her brother wrote via e-mail. "It was bad luck, because there was another office opened for [interviews] with visa applicants, and there was [another] American lady who seemed very nice."

He said the official only asked him for two "vital" statistics: how much money he had saved in his bank account, and whether he owned property in Romania. Because he is a college student, he had saved little money, and he and his family were renting a home. This, the woman informed him, is what made him a "flight risk," or someone more willing to overstay the visa requirement in the United States.

"She just told me that I defaulted the criteria and that today I won't get a visa," the e-mail continues. "She asked the same questions to [Cristina's cousin], too. So again, bad luck, and I feel very sorry, but at the same time, I am very mad."

Following the rejection, no one else in Catuna's family tried to get a visa. The $170 interview fee was not worth the "humiliation" of attempting a second interview, Catuna said. But over a month after the rejection at the U.S. Embassy, Catuna's mother persuaded the cousin to apply again for a visa, this time with her. The two found success, thanks in part to a letter of recommendation from Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and sponsorship from Catuna's "American family," Scott and Laurie Lundberg of Salt Lake.

"I am filled with joy knowing that my mom will now be present at our wedding," Catuna wrote in a recent e-mail, "especially since I will be so far away from my family and I don't know when I will see them next. It was important [that my cousin applied again] so there will be someone coming with my mom. She doesn't speak English and has never traveled outside of the country. It will also be her first time in an airplane."

Copyright Brigham Young University 8 Apr 2008