SEQUIM — After raising $26,000 to retain student visas and attend Peninsula College, one of two teen-age students from Kosovo may be forced to return to his country because of Immigration and Naturalization Service regulations.
Jetmir Bakija, 17, was informed last Friday that he needs to have a legal guardian appointed by Feb. 1 or he will be required to return to Kosovo on Feb. 15.
“I am willing to do whatever it takes to meet INS’ requirements,” he said. “My parents have wrote a letter to Mary (Welch) to allow her to become my guardian, and I am hoping it goes through before our deadline.”
Welch, an 87-year-old Sequim resident, met Bakija and Leart Zherka, 18, when they came to her home to work in her gardens.
After they lost sponsorship, she said the students could live with her. She has been helping them raise the $26,000 needed to remain in the United States.
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