‘Ready for new challenges’

By Denise Dick

The YSU graduate will return to work Monday.

AUSTINTOWN — Virgil Ciprian “Chip” Gilea’s green card fits inside his wallet, but the possibilities it provides are immense.

“I’m ready to move on,” said Chip, 31. “It was a test and I passed it and I’m ready for new challenges.”

Chip, who immigrated to the United States at 15, was jailed for 11 months under threat of deportation. After being released in November 2008, he applied for his permanent resident card, commonly called a green card, in April.

He finally received it late last month.

“I feel like I was carrying this weight and now that weight has been lifted from my shoulders,” Chip said.

His family is relieved, too.

“Everyone is happy,” said Virgil, Chip’s father.

“Our life is changing in the right direction,” his mother, Minerva, added.

Without a green card, Chip wasn’t able to work. His parents, sister Bianca, and fianc e Cindy Zaborsky, helped him pay the bills.

With the card in hand, Chip plans to return to work Monday as an electrical engineer at Energy Development Inc., a landfill-gas-to-energy company that operates at the Republic Services landfill, Poland Township.

The reliance on others was hard for him.

“I want to pay everyone back and help as much as I can,” Chip said.

Family members say they don’t want to be paid back.

“That’s what you do for family when they need help,” said Bianca, 28.

Chip’s problems started when he was arrested Dec. 27, 2007, by agents from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement while at work. The agency said Chip had stayed in the U.S. longer than he was authorized and would be deported. A New York attorney formerly retained by the family had missed a filing deadline regarding his residence and didn’t inform Chip about an order requiring him to leave the country.

An immigration judge ordered deportation in 2003, but neither Chip nor his family knew of that order.

As The Vindicator chronicled his plight, there was intervention by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office, work by a new Cleveland lawyer, Abraham Kay, and involvement of the Romanian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Immigration officials then reopened Chip’s case and he was released from jail in November 2008.

The family thanked all of those people and the community for the support.

After an April interview with immigration officials, Chip had expected to receive his green card about 30 days later.

Months passed.

“They kept saying something in my file was missing,” Chip said.

He credited Meredith Turner, who works in Brown’s office, for finally getting the card. She regularly called authorities who were working on Chip’s case, inquiring about the status.

“It’s amazing to find someone like her who is dedicating her skills to her job like that,” Chip said.

Kay, Chip’s current attorney, said the length of time Chip waited for his permanent resident card is longer than other cases with which he’s been involved.

“The card means he’s a legal permanent resident,” he said.

He can work legally and travel freely without fear of leaving the U.S. and not being able to return. The only restriction is that Chip can’t register to vote.

“In his case, after five years of good behavior, he can file for citizenship,” the attorney said.

Virgil and Bianca are both U.S. citizens. Minerva also is a permanent legal resident.

Virgil and Minerva came to the U.S. together in 1990. Chip and Bianca followed four years later. Chip and Bianca both graduated from Boardman High School and Youngstown State University.

Now that his ordeal is over, Chip hopes to marry Cindy and plans a trip to Romania next summer to visit his grandparents.

“The only thing left is for you to conquer your dreams,” Bianca said.

denise_dick@vindy.com