Their immigration lawyer rarely calls Sean and Michelle. So when Michelle saw the phone number come up on her cellphone last year, she answered.
She learned that she was one of 65,000 people who had been granted a H-1B visa. It meant a little more clarity for her and her husband's long immigration odyssey toward, they hope, becoming U.S. citizens.
The couple has been in the U.S. for more than a decade. They got married. Sean started a business. They have a daughter who was born in the U.S. However, their immigration journey to legally stay in the country has included an asylum claim, different visas and eventually obtaining Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.
TPS gives migrants from countries torn by disaster or political violence temporary but renewable protection from deportation. The Trump administration ended TPS last year for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
READ MORE:Venezuelans in the U.S. are torn between joy and worry after ousting of Maduro
Sean and Michelle had to find a different visa option to legally remain in the U.S.
That was when that phone call came from their immigration lawyer.
" We started jumping. Crying. Hugging each other," Michelle said. "It was like, wow. Wow."
The H-1B visa is for speciality occupations and it requires a labor certification.
" I think it's a miracle," said Michelle. "We really believe it is part of the process of being faithful."
There were about 10,000 H-1B visas granted in Florida in the last fiscal year, according to federal immigration data. That includes new grantees and changes to existing visa holders.
The couple expressed a mix of patience, faith and vulnerability as they shared their winding quest through the U.S. immigration system with WLRN.
"One hundred percent," Sean said. "By all means, yes. We love this country."
Sitting beside him on the patio of their home in Miami-Dade County, Michelle quickly added, "We don't have any other option."
Sean served in the Venezuelan Army before coming to Florida more than a decade ago. He was accused of participating in a plot to shake-up the government in 2013 when Nicolás Maduro became the country's leader succeeding Hugo Chávez.
Sean feared for his life and left. He first claimed asylum, but his application was still pending years later. Sean changed his legal status when TPS was extended to Venezuelans. That expired in September.
Then came the Jan. 3 U.S. military raid in Caracas that ousted Maduro and his wife from power, offering Venezuelans hope of a change in the country's future. He was replaced by Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who was part of the Maduro regime.
Even though Maduro now sits in a New York jail awaiting trial on narco-terrorism charges, Sean and Michelle don't see their future back in the country where they were born.
"We cannot go back to Venezuela," Michelle said. "It's the same regime, same gangsters. And even if a transition happens, I don't think it's safe for him to go back."
Trump's aggressive deporation strategy
It has been one year since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began his immigration enforcement. Thousands of people have been detained in Florida. The state passed its own immigration cooperation laws. Tens of thousands of Floridians have been impacted by the administration's swift changes to immigration policies such as canceling humanitarian parole and ending temporary protected status that gave hundreds of thousands of people legal status.
"We don't go anymore to Home Depot," Michelle said, sharing a story about how they instead relied on a relative — who is a permanent resident — to visit the store and buy some sod for a recent yard project.
" It's very obvious that there is a label for brown skin people exactly like us. And we don't want to risk being in that situation," she said.
We're so scared even having a lawful status.
Another place the couple avoids: Visits to Disney in Orlando with their young daughter.
They also don't go out for dinner at local chain restaurants out of fear they may be targeted by immigration enforcement actions.
" We're so scared even having a lawful status. We are so scared," said Michelle.
They acknowledge their caution and concern are in response to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. They hadn't been so concerned about being able to prove their legal status in a pinch.
"We don't see the immigration system as we saw it 10 years ago," Michelle said. "We have been here to see the changes between one administration and another one. Now we are seeing that due process is not as it used to be."
"The due process is not being moved by laws, but by politics now," Sean interjected. "That's really dangerous."
They don't discuss their immigration case with many people outside their immediate family. They try to avoid the subject with other parents at the school where their daughter attends. They say they feel ashamed.
" Somehow we feel like we're in a different layer of the society. That is very tough," said Michelle.
Yet, they both remain confident in the complex process that is legal immigration in America. And they trust their faith.
"If I have to define one thing that has been pivotal in our process is faith. That has given us the strength to go through all these difficult processes — faith in a higher power, but also faith in each other," said Sean. "Faith in the process of those in institutions, too."
Copyright 2026 WLRN
