TACOMA – Pvt. Stepan Provorov withstands attacks by insurgents in Iraq who shoot at him and send mortars dangerously close to his Stryker vehicle, but it is his fight for U.S. citizenship that weighs heavily on his mind.
The Fort Lewis soldier joined the Army last year and applied for his citizenship so he could bring his wife and children from Russia.
The process has been slow, despite letters and visits to immigration offices by his commanders in Baghdad.
“We’re getting to the point where we have exhausted every resource and it’s frustrating,” said Lt. Craig Coppock of DuPont, Provorov’s platoon leader in Baghdad. “All there needs to be is for someone to say OK. No one can tell us why that can’t happen.”
In May, Provorov, 30, had an immigration interview and passed tests on English, U.S. history and government.
The FBI also has finished its checks, but a separate background check by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services remains incomplete.
Provorov sought congressional help, but Ruth Clapp, aide to Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said there was little they could do to speed the process.
She did say people who asked for help with background checks eventually got the immigration benefit they wanted.
“Sadly, many of them had to wait a very long time – several years in some cases,” she wrote in an e-mail to Provorov.
Shelly Langlais with the Department of Homeland Security said in an Aug. 7 e-mail that she would contact Provorov when his case was ready to finish processing.
Provorov had yet to hear from her. Langlais did not respond to a request for more information by The News Tribune, which has a reporter embedded with Stryker soldiers in Iraq.
Provorov grew up in Siberia, experiencing the corruption and chaos of post-Soviet Russia. His brother died in a shootout and he said his own life was threatened.
In 1996, he went to Chicago, where his father had friends. Two years later he was granted asylum.
Provorov met his wife while she was visiting friends and he was working multiple jobs selling cars and driving a cab.
She had to leave when her visa expired, so vowing to bring his family back, Provorov got a green card and joined the Army in September 2005.
After basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., Provorov asked to be assigned to a unit that would be sent to Iraq, picking Fort Lewis because he wanted to be a Stryker brigade soldier.
“I always wanted to be a soldier, and then I found a country worth fighting for,” Provorov said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
