By Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman 2009
I-140 describes artists Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert-Jones’ five-year-long, $32,000 (and some small change) struggle to keep Talisman legally in the US. The video shows the couple holding hand-made signs on the side of Californian highways as traffic drives blindly by. Each sign describes a step in their struggle with the US immigration services. Their story is most especially ironic as Talisman’s own mother (and grandmother) are US citizens. If the couple were heterosexual Talisman would immediately be granted Hibbert-Jones’ US citizenship. Talisman and Hibbert-Jones have been working collaboratively for the last five years. They have continuously worked on Talisman’s immigration case for that same period. Despite active art careers their struggle with the US Immigration Services has been the major, key and foremost labor they have been engaged in during that time. Most recently Talisman applied to stay in the US under the I-140 Artist of Extraordinary Ability category; despite legal assurances that the case was strong it was rejected by an USCIS clerk in Nebraska based on “insufficient evidence.” Talisman’s current US visa application status is “pending.”
