The U.S. government recently denied a green card application by a well-known Second Life artist, declaring her two-year marriage to an American citizen to be fraudulent. The news isn’t all bad for her, though — the denial gives her an opportunity to appeal and prove that the marriage was legitimate.

However, she says she’s growing weary of trying to untangle the red tape, and is preparing for the probability that she’ll be forced to abandon her adopted home in America.

Irena Morris, known in Second Life as “Eshi Otawara,” married an American citizen who died while her application for residency was still in progress. A provision in U.S. immigration law called the “widow’s penalty” says that, in that situation, an alien’s green card application should be rejected if the marriage lasted less than two years. The Morrises were married one year and 10 months when Glenn Morris died suddenly.

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