Once denied, Hari Subedi finally gets his citizenship in US

The week that had gone was significant for former Bhutanese refugee Hari Subedi, who was resettled to the United States from Goldhap camp.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services had heard his appeal and ruled in his favor. Subedi, a man who arrived in the United States after living for 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal, will be sworn in as a citizen in a ceremony on Friday.

Earlier he was denied of the citizenship because he unknowingly registered as voter for the presidential elections.

Now Hari will become American along with his two sons, the youngest one born on the Thanksgiving Day.

The office of U.S. Sen. Tom Udall and Olsi Vrapi, an immigration attorney, helped Mr Subedi to resolve the issue that had entangled in a rigid immigration bureaucracy.

“Hari won this on his merits,” Vrapi was quoted in a local newspaper. “This was one of the stronger cases that I’ve seen of somebody who really deserves citizenship – probably the strongest one.”

Subedi did his citizenship test in September last year but a week later he received a letter saying he would not get US citizenship. He is the chairperson of Bhutanese Social Service in New Mexico.