Chesman gets OK to immigrate

After the publication of a brief article (“When fingerprints are obstacle to marriage”) on July 14 outlining the challenges Gabe Chesman, a young paraplegic originally from Summit, faced trying to immigrate to Vancouver, NJJN received word that the situation had been corrected.

Chesman’s fiancee, Meriah Main, lives in Vancouver, and the two have plans to marry there in May. Because of the deformities in his fingers, Chesman made no fewer than six attempts to be fingerprinted, all rejected by the FBI. The prints are required in order for the FBI to provide immigration authorities with information on whether or not an applicant has a criminal record.

After receiving a copy of the NJJN article, Stephen Fischer, chief of the FBI’s multimedia productions in its Criminal Justice Information Services division, sent a note via e-mail dated July 15: “I’m pleased to inform you that this morning I learned that staff from our Biometric Services Section were able to successfully process Gabriel’s prints. The result was a non-ident, which means he has no previous criminal history with us. A formal written response in that regard is being mailed out today.”

That means that Chesman will now be allowed to move forward with his plans to immigrate to Canada. A grateful Chesman wrote to NJJN, “There’s no doubt that it is due to your efforts. This means so much to me. I can’t thank you enough.”

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