After filing several visas, waiting over 10 years and working through the immigration process, Gerard and Alina Nsabimana are American citizens.
“I have lived in my home country where I was born and raised a shorter period of time than I have lived in the United States,” he said.
“I couldn’t qualify for an American passport or be able to vote, and now I am looking forward to being able to do that. I do not have any plans today or tomorrow going back to my native country so I’m glad we have decided to call this our home country.”
Gerard was born and raised in a small country in East Central Africa named Burundi.
With nine siblings, Gerard was raised in the United Methodist Church.
Civil war broke out in 1993, which claimed the lives of his father and five siblings.
After graduating high school, Gerard fled in 1995 to Kenya, then to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Democratic Republic of Congo broke out into Civil War as well forcing Gerard to flee again to Tanzania, where he lived in a transient refugee camp for three months.
Gerard found himself in Kenya and applying to attend Africa University in Zimbabwe.
Gerard received his Bachelor Degree of Science in Agriculture and Natural Resources and graduated in May 2002.
Before his last year of undergrad school in 2001, Gerard had a 10 week internship in Michigan.
Gerard moved to the United States in 2002 to attend Oklahoma State University, where he received his Masters degree in Agriculture and Natural resources in 2005.
“My goal was to go back home and help with the rural development, but I couldn’t go back due to the civil war,” he said.
“I realized when I went to visit my family, I came to the understanding that I had been running away from ministry for many many years. Even if I had wanted to talk about development, you can not talk about development in a country destroyed by civil war without talking about reconciliation.”
During his time at OSU, Gerard was involved in the United Methodist Church campus ministry through the Wesley Foundation.
After graduation, Gerard worked in Michigan with cherry farmers. Six months later, the OSU campus minister asked him if he was interested in coming back to OSU to help start ministries with international students.
“By the time I had graduated from Oklahoma State University, I had lost more than six family members because of the civil war,” he said.
“My mother, who is still living, she said ‘Son, I love you and I want you to be close to where I am, but I do not want to think about you coming and being killed.’”
Gerard went back to school and received his Masters of Divinity from Duke University in 2011.
Gerard and Alina met at OSU and were married in 2012 in Romania.
Alina is from Romania and had received a fullride scholarship to throw shot put and discus for the Track Team.
She received her Masters degree in International Studies.
The process to become an American citizen is long and involves a variety of steps.
After seminary, Gerard got his H1B workers visa in 2011 which allowed him to work as a campus minister for the University of Central Oklahoma.
After being on the H1B visa for two years, Gerard qualified for his green card and permanent residency, which was approved in November of 2014.
Every time Gerard needed to apply for a visa, he would have to leave the United States. Gerard said he had so much joy and relief when he received his green card because it meant he didn’t have to go to Juarez, Mexico or Canada to apply for a visa anymore.
Since he got the green card through work, Gerard and Alina needed to wait five years before they could qualify to apply for citizenship.
“I have lived in this country for 19 years and have been paying taxes like everyone else, but I do not qualify to have my voice be heard through elections,” he said. “I feel like it’s great to be a citizen and I’m looking forward to the time where I can participate in the election like everyone else. It’s really great to know that, whether the policy you vote on passes or not or the person you vote for wins or not, at least you know that you’ve done your part. I feel like it’s great to have the same rights and natural rights as a citizen.”
In December of 2019, Gerard and Alina applied for citizenship, payed the fees, took the civics test and were sworn in as a new citizen in January of 2020.
Gerard is the Pastor at the First United Methodist Church. He and Alina live in Stroud with their three daughters.