Meet Sarah Miller

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Miller.

Sarah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in a town called Upminster, Essex, which is on the edge of East London. I started coming to the US when I was ten years old, visiting family in California. I remember on the last day of my first trip to the US, telling my aunt who lived there at the time that when I grow up I want to live here. Because of my age at the time, she didn’t take me seriously, but I was determined and knew that one day I would end up moving.

When I returned to England after that trip, I started to save up some of my allowance and any birthday or Christmas money I would get from family. I remember going to the bank with my Mom on Saturday mornings and depositing my money for the week into a savings account. Over the years I saved up a considerable amount of money.

When I was 17 years old, I came out to Colorado to visit a family that had moved from California to Colorado Springs. It was a big change in scenery from my previous trips to California, and I loved it even more. I made a comment to my cousin this time about how much I wanted to live here, and she told me instead of talking about it, I needed to just do it. I was out of high school at that point, and working full time at a clothing store, so I had no reason not to.

I realized my cousin was completely right. I had nothing stopping me. So I returned to England with my parents, gave my two weeks notice at my job, and booked a one-way flight back to Colorado Springs. I had no real plan, just the money I had been saving up since that first trip to California, and a suitcase full of clothes. I came out for the 90 days given to tourists and spent it researching, and talking to immigration attorneys to see what my options were. I was shocked when they all seemed to say the same thing; “You have two options: go to school, or marry an American.” I had never really planned or thought about going to college to pursue a degree, but the circumstance called for it. So I enrolled at the local community college, went back to England, and after a lot of paperwork, and an interview at the US embassy in London, I finally had a student visa.

Fast forward to 2015, I had been working for a relocation company in Aurora for almost a year, as part of Optional Practical Training under my student visa. I was unaware at the time, just how hard it is to get a work visa, which is what I had been planning on transferring to after my year of training was up. The company I was working for told me that their immigration attorney had said there was no possible way for me to stay, even with a job and a degree in Business Management. At that moment I realized I was out of options, and after eight years of hard work, and a lot of money, it seemed like that was the end of my journey here in the US. I was completely devastated and felt like this was my home. I couldn’t imagine ever living back in England. That’s when I made the hard decision of not leaving and letting my visa expire.

I spent the next handful of years living in Denver, technically as an illegal immigrant. In 2018 I met the love of my life and got married. I didn’t think I would be able to even apply for a green card after spending time in the US illegally. But after consulting with an immigration attorney, we were able to get a green card for me. It was a grueling process, and a long journey overall, but I have now been a legal US resident for a year, and realized that my decision to stay here with an expired visa, was the best decision I could have ever made. If I had a gone back to England, I would have been so homesick, and would never have met my husband.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s definitely been anything but a smooth road for me. Losing a job that I loved was really tough, and the decision to stay past my visa was even tougher. The handful of years as an illegal immigrant were scary, and I was constantly paranoid about getting in trouble or immigration catching up with me. I felt like I was constantly on edge and watching my back. It was also hard knowing I could never go back to England to visit my parents, as once I left, I would never be able to return to the US.

Once I met my now-husband, and things started looking up, we hit another bump in the road. I was still illegal at that time, so I didn’t have any access to health insurance. I got sick with a really bad cold, that led to me coughing too hard, rupturing the carotid artery, causing me to have a stroke. At the time, we had only been dating for two months, but he never left my side as I started the long process of recovery. We had been through so much together in such a short period of time, and already knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, so when my parents came out to visit just a few months later, we decided that would be the perfect time for us to get married.

The green card process was much harder than we could have anticipated, even with an immigration attorney. It cost us around $4000 and there were endless amounts of paperwork that needed to be submitted, including affidavits from family and friends, and photographs showing we were in a real relationship. It was a frustrating and time-consuming process, but ultimately worth it. Looking ahead, I plan on finally taking my citizenship test in 2022, and I can’t wait to end this long chapter of my life as an official US citizen.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My vacations to the US have always been some of my favorite childhood memories. We would always visit in the month of October, usually a few days after my birthday, so I think that always made the trips feel extra special. It definitely sparked my love for travel and seeing new places.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: srah_marie

Image Credit:
Megan Simpson Photography

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