Vardan Sargsyan has accepted his fate and is resigned to the fact he has to leave the country.
Despite trying to introduce new evidence of his seven-year stay in the Unites States to immigration officials, Sargsyan has again been ordered to leave the country for his native Armenia. Sargsyan, a gymnastic coach at Great American Gymnastic Express (GAGE) in Blue Springs, has been denied citizenship three times by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officials in California.
“They won’t re-open (the case), despite new evidence,” Sargsyan said Friday by phone. “I still have the right to appeal … I’m leaving next week (on June 3).”
Sargsyan said it is difficult for him and his family – including a wife and two children – to pack up and leave the Blue Springs residence they call home. Sargsyan has been in the United States since 2003 and came to the area in 2005 to work with GAGE owner Al Fong and Fong’s Armenian-born wife, Armine Barutyan-Fong, a former gymnastics trainer partner of Sargsyan in their home country.
“My impression is this: Nothing is going to help me,” Sargsyan said. “Not the good references behind me, not the parents (of gymnasts). Nothing’s helping. It’s some big mystery.”
Shelley Studdard, a parent of a daughter that trains at GAGE – one of the premier gymnastic centers in the country that has produced a pair of Olympians and several national team members – told the Examiner May 15 that deporting Sargsyan is “awful.”
“He has a child that was born here,” Studdard said. “He is an elite women’s coach. We have so many families that are upset about this.”
Sargsyan said he and his family are leaving the country voluntarily as a good-will gesture to show immigration officials that he respects their decision and soon hopes to return to the United States. He added he will tell the gymnasts that he helps train at GAGE and their parents before he leaves that he looks forward to returning to the country someday and resume training some of the best gymnasts in the area.
“I will be anxious to come back again,” he said.
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Vardan Sargsyan has accepted his fate and is resigned to the fact he has to leave the country.
Despite trying to introduce new evidence of his seven-year stay in the Unites States to immigration officials, Sargsyan has again been ordered to leave the country for his native Armenia. Sargsyan, a gymnastic coach at Great American Gymnastic Express (GAGE) in Blue Springs, has been denied citizenship three times by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officials in California.
“They won’t re-open (the case), despite new evidence,” Sargsyan said Friday by phone. “I still have the right to appeal … I’m leaving next week (on June 3).”
Sargsyan said it is difficult for him and his family – including a wife and two children – to pack up and leave the Blue Springs residence they call home. Sargsyan has been in the United States since 2003 and came to the area in 2005 to work with GAGE owner Al Fong and Fong’s Armenian-born wife, Armine Barutyan-Fong, a former gymnastics trainer partner of Sargsyan in their home country.
“My impression is this: Nothing is going to help me,” Sargsyan said. “Not the good references behind me, not the parents (of gymnasts). Nothing’s helping. It’s some big mystery.”
Shelley Studdard, a parent of a daughter that trains at GAGE – one of the premier gymnastic centers in the country that has produced a pair of Olympians and several national team members – told the Examiner May 15 that deporting Sargsyan is “awful.”
“He has a child that was born here,” Studdard said. “He is an elite women’s coach. We have so many families that are upset about this.”
Sargsyan said he and his family are leaving the country voluntarily as a good-will gesture to show immigration officials that he respects their decision and soon hopes to return to the United States. He added he will tell the gymnasts that he helps train at GAGE and their parents before he leaves that he looks forward to returning to the country someday and resume training some of the best gymnasts in the area.
“I will be anxious to come back again,” he said.
