Photo by Erin Nelson.
Bianca Guiser, a float nurse for Vestavia Hills City Schools, works with a student in the nurse’s office at the Vestavia Hills High School Freshman Campus on Sept. 26. Guiser received her United States citizenship status in September.
When Bianca Guiser raised her right hand, took an oath to the United States and heard that she was officially a citizen on Sept. 16, it was a memory long in the making.
“I was grinning from ear to ear,” Guiser said.
Guiser, a nurse in the Vestavia Hills City School system, immigrated to the U.S. in February 2001 from South Africa with her family. Guiser went through the Leeds school system and then received a nursing degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Since 2018, Guiser has been with the Vestavia school system, first at Vestavia Hills Elementary Liberty Park and then, since the COVID-19 pandemic, as a float nurse. When she applied for a green card, she was told to pursue a four-year degree that was a “service to society,” which led to nursing.
It’s been a long road for Guiser, whose family began the paperwork to stay in the United States in 2007. It took seven years for that paperwork to process, but then Guiser and her brother had to fill out more paperwork since they had turned 21 during that time.
“That’s probably why this doesn’t feel completely real yet,” Guiser said.
Guiser and her husband, who live in Trussville now, dated for three years before getting married, but the government takes extra steps to ensure marriages between an American citizen and an immigrant are legitimate, to avoid so-called “green-card marriages.” They examine deeds, ask questions about whether Guiser knows her in-laws’ names and more, she said. There are follow-up interviews two years later.
“You always feel a little bit different than others, because my paperwork says I’m different than others,” Guiser said.
Many South Africans have left the country due to corruption and violence, Guiser said.
“It was weird to us that people could leave their bicycles outside [in the U.S],” Guiser said.
Guiser said there is sometimes a misunderstanding that not all immigrants look the same. There have been people in her past that told her mother to go back where she came from.
“That hurts so much,” Guiser said.
In third grade, Guiser learned it wasn’t cool to be different, so she learned the American accent, she said.
But now, she said she has a very supportive community, and everyone in Vestavia has been very excited for her becoming a citizen.
“Sometimes we don’t even know how good we have it over here [in Vestavia],” Guiser said.
Brenda Seale, the system’s lead nurse, said Guiser does whatever is needed, which became evident when she agreed to become a float nurse during the pandemic. Guiser “does things the right way” and works hard to find solutions to problems, Seale said.
Guiser has a “good heart,” she said.
“She really cares a lot and shows it in her work ethic,” Seale said.
To become a citizen, Guiser had to obtain an ID, answer some questions and pass a citizenship test. She did all three and came back a few hours later to take the oath.
Reflecting on her journey to America, Guiser said she’s thankful for her parents.
“[They] gave up everything to bring us here,” Guiser said. “They gave up successful jobs. But for my brothers and I to have a chance and live in a safer community. … We wouldn’t have that if we stayed in South Africa.”
Early this month, Guiser will vote for the first time in her life. It hasn’t yet hit her that she is a full-fledged American citizen.
“Standing in line to vote will maybe do it,” she said.
