Haiti Peace Corps volunteer Melissa Perkins Joseph returning with her husband
Volunteer returning with her husband
She had to leave Haiti without her spouse, but now he has a visa
BY PENELOPE M. CARRINGTON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Apr 7, 2004
He got it.
After several anxious weeks of waiting for her Haitian husband to be granted a visa, Peace Corps volunteer Melissa Perkins Joseph is hours from bringing Jean Hariph "Santo" Joseph home to Richmond.
The couple, who married in Haiti on Jan. 10, picked up the visa from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince early last week and left for Florida on Friday. The newlyweds stopped to visit Jean Joseph's sister in Orlando, whom he had not seen in two years.
The couple will board another plane today, this time for Washington, where they will be met by Melissa Joseph's parents.
"We're really glad that it has been resolved," said Carol Perkins, Melissa's mother, yesterday.
Perkins also expressed thanks for the assistance of those in the office of U.S. Rep Eric I. Cantor, R-7th. The office worked with the U.S. State Department and the embassy to reunite the couple, who were separated by the country's deadly civil unrest.
On Feb. 20, Melissa Joseph was forced to evacuate her second home when the Peace Corps pulled out all its volunteers. The necessary paperwork for her husband's visa had been completed at the time except for the results of a fingerprint check.
What is normally a two- to six-week process was threatened by Haiti's unrest and the closing of the embassy.
On March 20, a month after she promised she would return if his visa had not been granted, Melissa Joseph flew back to Haiti to be with her husband. Less than two weeks later, the couple left to start the married life that had been interrupted by one nation's domestic turmoil and another's red tape.
"We were just so happy when she called us and said they were here," said Carol Perkins of her daughter's call from Florida on Friday.
Contact Penelope M. Carrington at (804) 649-6027 or pcarrington@timesdispatch.com
