First Green Card Issued to Colorado Lesbian Couple
Cathy Davis, an Irish national was issued a Green Card on July 3 by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, based on her marriage to Catriona Dowling, making Cathy the first immigrant to become a permanent resident in the U.S. through her marriage to a same-sex spouse.
Catriona and Cathy met in Nepal while hiking the Himalayas in 2006 and it was love at first sight. Both grew up in Ireland, only one town away from one another. Cathy began visiting Catriona intermittently from Ireland, always having to return, because of the limitations of visitor visas.
Cathy eventually sought employment as a registered nurse in the U.S. and was sponsored by an employer in Texas, but was ultimately denied a work visa to remain in America.
Because their family situation became so tenuous, Catriona and Cathy joined The DOMA Project in June 2012 when they filed a green card petition, to prevent their family from being torn apart again.
The couple had a green card interview with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in January 2013. The immigration officer who conducted the interview told them that if they had been a heterosexual couple, they would have been approved because of their extensive documentation. Lavi Soloway, a co-founder of The DOMA Project, convinced the official not to deny their petition application, but to put it on hold.