Judy Richard, Karin Bogliolo can now travel internationally, thanks to DOMA …

The days, months and years of what Judy Rickard calls “sad and separated” are finally over for her and her spouse Karin Bogliolo.

On July 23 Bogliolo got her green card, allowing her to return to her native United Kingdom without fear of not being able to return to Rickard and the United States.

Bogliolo’s card was just the third one ever issued to a gay immigrant by the U.S.

It was also the culmination of an eight-year battle to be together.

The Supreme Court’s June ruling striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which had prohibited the recognition of same-sex couples, was the key to ending the limbo Rickard and Bogliolo were in for years.

During their battle, Bogliolo missed the marriage of her son Michael in Scotland and was unable to travel to England to support her daughter Tamsin during two separate surgeries.

She also missed less significant but still important events, including a high school reunion and a community celebration in Scotland.

“How many birthdays? How many Christmases? All those normal things that I might have enjoyed with my children and grandchildren, I haven’t had those,” Bogliolo says.

“Now I’m going to make up for it.”

With her green card safely in hand, she immediately made reservations to spend five weeks in the UK visiting family and friends.

Cambrian resident Rickard made her own sacrifices as well.

In April 2009 she left the job she loved at San Jose State University as director of marketing for international and extended studies, taking early retirement, which reduced her pension benefits.

She did it because Bogliolo was restricted in the number and length of visits she could make to the U.S. and Rickard was unable to afford to continue taking unpaid leaves to visit her in the UK.

The two met online in 2005 and committed to each other in 2006.

They registered as domestic partners in California on Valentine’s Day of 2007, but that didn’t allow Bogliolo to stay in the U.S.

She was told by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that her visits were too frequent and she needed to leave for a long period of time.

“For our first five years together, we were apart half the years,” Rickard says.

After Rickard took early retirement, she traveled to Canada to join Bogliolo and the two remained out of the U.S. for a year.

In 2011 they married in Vermont, where same sex marriage was legal.

In 2012 Rickard applied for a green card for Bogliolo, with the help of attorney Lavi Soloway, co-founder of the DOMA Project, which opposed deporting bi- national lesbian and gay couples.

When the trio met with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer, he was empathetic but unable to issue a green card because of the existing DOMA law. The officer did not deny it either; he just held it for “further review.”

With the Supreme Court ruling, their petition was one of the first approved. On July 19 they both received formal notification and on July 23 Bogliolo had her green card in hand.

On July 30 she left for the UK, knowing she can easily return in September.

Both women have been active in the fight for marriage equality and Rickard chronicled their battle and those of others in her 2011 book Torn Apart: United by Love, Divided by Law. She donated book proceeds to three groups–Immigration Equality, Love Exiles Foundation and Out4Immigration.

On March 26 they were both in Washington, D.C., where Rickard was one of 11 individuals honored by President Barack Obama at the White House as Cesar Chavez Champions of Change.

Chavez’s granddaughter Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a public engagement adviser in the White House, nominated Rickard for the honor.

On March 27, the day the Supreme Court was hearing arguments on DOMA, Rickard and Bogliolo stood together outside the court.

“Mentally, emotionally and physically I’m exhausted and very happy,” Rickard says.

“I feel so many people will benefit from the Supreme Court decision, so these families can be reunited safely and legally, instead of trying to stay here not legally.

“I’m disappointed Congress can’t get comprehensive immigration reform taken care of.”

Next for Rickard and Bogliolo will be a fall honeymoon in Hawaii.