On January 6, Jenny Reynoso, 18, was operating on practically no sleep. She’d been up most of the night praying the rosary, unable to eat because of a nervous stomach. As a distraction, she and her brother, Johnny, 14, played video games while they waited by the phone. When the phone finally rang at 1 p.m., Jenny dropped the video game controller she was holding and lunged for the phone.
On the other end of the line, Jenny’s mother, Maria, spoke in breathless excitement. “Guess what?” she told her kids. “Your Dad is coming home!”
After being stuck in immigration limbo for nineteen months, Lazaro Reynoso finally rejoins his family. (Photo provided)
Lazaro Reynoso, 43, has been in Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico since June 2019, awaiting permission to return to the United States. While applying for U.S. citizenship, his visa was denied, despite the fact that Lazaro lived in the U.S. since age 11, is married to a U.S. citizen, and owned and operated a successful recycling business in Elgin for 16 years. The business, in his absence, had to be sold.
For 19 months, Lazaro rented a room in Juárez, working in a laundromat and waited his turn to get an appointment in the U.S. Consulate so that he could hopefully be granted a visa to return to the United States. The immigration process, a system mired in bureaucracy, was further hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in temporary shutdown of government offices.
In the meantime, back in Elgin, Jenny and her mother did what they could to keep the family afloat, both financially and emotionally. Maria, 42, sometimes worked 14-15 hour shifts while Jenny balanced caring for her brothers with a job at a coffee shop and a full-time college course load.
Lazaro’s appointment in the U.S. Consulate in Juárez was set for January 6, so Maria and the couple’s 6-year-old son, Joshua, headed to Mexico with necessary paperwork.
The long wait was over: Lazaro’s visa was granted at the January 6 appointment. His visa expires in June 2021, at which point he’ll get a green card that’s valid for 10 years.
“That was another thing I was thankful for,” says Jenny. “Some people literally will die waiting for an appointment like this.”
With the new visa in hand, Lazaro, Maria, and Joshua wasted no time and drove 1,500 miles back to Elgin. They returned home January 11.
“It was such an emotional roller coaster,” says Jenny of those first moments of being reunited. “He saw his dogs, he met the [new] cat. The first thing he did was look around and then he just flopped down on the couch. He was so happy to be home.”
During his 19-month absence, Lazaro missed small moments and big milestones: Jenny graduated from high school last May; Johnny graduated from middle school. But the family is ready to look forward. Lazaro celebrated his birthday with his family at the end of January. He has a new job working night shift in a factory and drives Uber, Lyft, and Uber Eats as a side hustle.
Jenny says she gets a little emotional when she hears her mother laughing in the next room with her father. “He’s known as a funny dude, always making everyone crack up,” she says. “It’s been so long since I’ve genuinely heard laughter from my mom.”
Jenny says she feels lighter, too. “It’s so amazing to have that weight off of us, because now I don’t have to worry about if my mom’s happy or not. Sad or not. If my brothers are okay—Where are they? Have they eaten yet?”
“I can be a teenager again,” says Jenny. “Everybody’s home now.”
