COLUMBUS, Wis. — After a wedding in Peru, police officer Mario Gonzalez was forced to return to Madison alone. He had to leave his new bride behind due to a lengthy immigration process.

Mario Gonzalez and his wife, Ale, enjoyed what they described as a “wonderful” wedding day.

“It was great,” Mario Gonzalez said.

However, their joy was quickly diminished by the challenges that followed.

“It was one of the most difficult goodbyes, had to leave my wife in Peru and come back here,” Mario Gonzalez said.

The couple is enduring a long-distance relationship as they face a now 10-month immigration battle for Ale Gonzalez’s residence visa. 

“It’s very frustrating, discouraging for a couple trying to do it all legal,” Ale Gonzalez said.

Mario Gonzalez said the separation has been particularly challenging for him as he navigates life without his wife.

“The wait has been very tough and just things that come up where I could really use her help,” he said.

He said simple tasks like decorating their new historic house have been difficult without her presence.

“Everything is in place. The only thing that’s not in place and not ready is the most important thing and that is her,” he said.

The couple’s immigration attorney, Scott Andrew Fulks, criticized the current immigration system.

“I think it’s reflective of our current broken immigration system,” said Fulks. “I work with a lot of employers who bring in employees, and I can get them in within less than two months many times. But then when it comes to spouses of U.S. citizens, here we are waiting a year and a half or two years for them to be able to live together. Something’s wrong.”

Fulks said he thinks that Congress should consider allowing families to pay additional fees to expedite residency visas.

As Mario Gonzalez awaits his wife’s arrival, he continues to comb through hours of immigration paperwork. He has also reached out to Sen. Ron Johnson’s office for assistance.

Johnson shared the following statement with Spectrum News in response to the situation:

“The mission statement for my Senate office is ‘To Help People.’ My staff has a stellar reputation for going above and beyond to help constituents navigate the red tape of the federal government. While we cannot comment on specific cases, cases like this do highlight the frustrations of our broken immigration system for the people looking to come to our country the legal way.”