Immigrant faces transgender bias

TWENTY-SEVEN-year-old Gemma Matilda Tomiko Hentsch, a transgender woman hailing from West Sussex, England, emigrated to the United States three years ago with the intention of undergoing her male-to-female transition removed from the scrutiny of a disapproving family.

Hentsch, who is now seeking a working visa from the U.S. government--specifically an E-2 class visa, which enables immigrant entrepreneurs to either start or purchase American businesses--originally planned to remain in United States for two or three years before returning home to the United Kingdom.

But as time passed and her transition endowed her with a newfound sense of confidence, Hentsch experienced a sudden change of heart. "Britain will always be my home, but this is where I actually want to live," she said via interview on April 3. "It's been a social evolution...This area, the capital district, is my home. This is where I want to stay."

Hentsch is a resident of Glenville, N.Y., some 20 minutes outside of Albany. The area has been economically depressed for decades.

Originally employed as a highly skilled overseas computer programmer for the Rensselear Institute of Technology, Hentsch settled in the Albany region to undergo her transition, utilizing an H1-B working visa in order to support herself during the process. "I was primarily employed as a computer programmer, although a lot of their workload was based on doing computer support," she said. "I basically did everything from network support to doing video editing for them."

As her 2-year, 2-month tenure with Rensselaer Institute of Technology unfolded, Hentsch grew to see her upstate New York community as home. With the new self-confidence and gregariousness afforded by her transition, she began forging valuable friendships. A palpable sense of belonging soon followed.

Eventually, Hentsch hatched the idea of forming her own corporation. Spurred on by a lawyer's encouragement and a promising contract with lucrative business partners, she began formulating a small-business plan in January 2010--the brainchild of a several-year vision. Hentsch's company would focus on software development, she said, while providing job creation to a depressed region.

Hentsch, whose technological savvy is multifaceted, posits an impressive resume to potential employers. Her experiences with computer repair and programming date back 17 years. "Very basic stuff those days," she reflected, "but I did some neat things."

Her employment history is impressive, boasting nine years of independent-contractor software development, programming and tech support for such companies as Mymart and Openads. Establishing a small business would fulfill a double purpose for Hentsch: consummating her near-lifelong goal of working in computer management, while remaining home in her New York community.

POSITIVE REVIEWS initially surrounded Hentsch's first attempt at devising a viable business plan. "The lawyer told me it was...the best she'd seen come into her department. The one change she made was she wanted me to make more detailed financial projections, so I did those for up to two years in advance."

A lawyer advised Hentsch to apply for an E-2 investor visa. Hentsch agreed, signing an $11,000 contract with a future business partner. According to the contract's stipulations, her business operation was slated to begin immediately after the U.S. government formally approved Hentsch's visa application.

When asked by application requirements to list a requisite amount of monetary investment, Hentsch complied, providing well-documented, advisor-approved evidence of the capital, assets, and investments necessary to grant the E-2 Investor visa.

On March 10, 2010, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) contacted Hentsch via postal mail, informing her of an incoming message on the 14. They refused to prematurely disclose the letter's contents.

They did state, however, that her visa had been denied.

A March 11, 2010, phone call marked the first time Hentsch spoke to an USCIS representative, only to notice a tenor of unhelpfulness throughout the exchange. A "brick wall" was how she described it. "It was: 'This is the situation, why don't you accept it?'" she said.

Furthermore, Hentsch noted, the USCIS representative seemed stubbornly unwilling to address Hentsch by her legal female name. "My British passport says 'female,' my full name. It's a binding legal document by every country in the world."

United States immigration law requires all visa applicants to provide documentation of previous aliases. Although Hentsch's current legal name is listed as "Gemma Matilda Tomiko Hentsch"--and her gender is officially defined as female--USCIS representatives insisted upon referring to her by her erstwhile male identity.

"It was always...they would say 'sir, sir." The first few times I would say, 'Look, no, it's ma'am.' 'Sir' was the only pronoun they used when talking to me," Hentsch explained. Representatives did not respond to her repeated corrections.

"I know occasionally, I do sound male on the phone when I'm stressed. But I was also conscious of this fact, so therefore I was being exceptionally focused on keeping my voice in female range. So the only way they could know about it is if they were reading my file that lists that," Hentsch said.

The letter sent to Hentsch by the USCIS determined the cause of her visa's rejection a lack of viable financial capital, a complaint she addressed by submitting further evidence of strong and dedicated investment. Her attempt at acquiring an appeal was denied, however, on the grounds that re-submission constitutes a violation of USCIS protocol.

Repeated inquiries to the same USCIS office yielded similar results. Officers consistently referred to Hentsch as male, refusing to use her legal name. When Hentsch requested a more detailed explanation of her denial, the USCIS refused, citing a similar violation of protocol. Unwilling to give up, Hentsch asked to speak with her officer's supervisor, but that demand, too, fell on deaf ears.

Hentsch sent numerous additional e-mails to the USCIS asking for an explanation of what the USCIS described--in so many words--as a lacking business plan. (Hentsch, however, has invested approximately $46,000 worth of capital in the corporation.) Finally, when the USCIS budged, they claimed that Hentsch was eligible to submit additional supporting information for her business plan. However, according to USCIS guidelines, doing so would render the earlier segment of her submission null and void.

The USCIS has also sent Hentsch numerous e-mail responses, each essentially claiming that her case is closed.

She is devastated and disheartened by the rejection, particularly in light of her impressive skill-set as a software developer and computer programmer.

She is being forced to leave the country--and her life--behind on Friday, April 9, 2010.
Al Riccio, from the Internet