WILDWOOD, Mo. -- The love story took her from Beijing to Missouri. Khamphee Kells thought she had the fairy tale ending to her romance with Petty Officer First Class Bob Kells. And it was a fairy tale marriage for nine months. Then, the love story turned into a nightmare.

Khamphee and Bob met while the handsome sailor was working at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China. They found each other through a mutual friend and that started a whirlwind romance that ended with a marriage proposal.

The couple filed the necessary paperwork with U.S. immigration authorities. So, when Bob's work in Beijing ended, they moved back to Missouri near St. Louis with Khamphee's two children.

On March 11, 2006, Bob went to work a half day as a Navy recruiter. When his shift ended, he called Khamphee and asked if she would join him for a motorcycle ride. She normally told him no. She was afraid of motorcycles. She'd lost a family member in a motorcycle accident.

On this day, she said yes. She doesn't know why. It was a nice spring day. They rode for about a half hour and he dropped her off. She had to get a child to a soccer game. Bob went back out on the bike and never came home. Khamphee tells us a driver pulled out in front of him and he died instantly.

Khamphee said in a telephone interview that she spent days and weeks in a state of shock. She didn't know what she was going to do without her husband. She figured she needed to pull it together and stay alive for her children. She thanks Bob's father for stepping actively into her life. He even taught her to how to pay bills.

During this time of grief, she discovered she had a problem staying in the United States. Some people call it the widow's penalty. A foreign spouse of a U.S. citizen is eligible for permanent residency. But, after the death of a spouse, some get caught in a bureaucratic quagmire.

Khamphee is one of four Missourians caught in this situation according to the group Surviving Spouses against Deportation. Nationwide, the group’s attorney Brent Renison says, it has 170 members in the same position as Khamphee.

He tells us the law works this way: "If the spouse dies during bureaucratic processing, the immigration authorities suddenly take the position that (residency) must be automatically revoked unless you have been married two years."

"If Mrs. Kells' case had been adjudicated a bit earlier, before her husband died, she would have been fine along with the girls. Ironic, that someone who was married for less time than Mrs. Kells when her husband died could get resident status, solely because processing was faster for that person."

He says processing times vary wildly from state to state.

Renison urges the Department of Homeland Security to review the rules for surviving spouses. Renison argues in a memo to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano that the practice compounds "the loss of these surviving spouses, making them face deportation, lose employment authorization, and cope with separation from family members and the home they made with their American spouses. This injustice is not required by current law, and should be halted immediately."

Napolitano has questions about the policy. She's quoted in a news release saying, "What are the regulatory, legislative, and litigation options that could be considered to immediately address the situation of these widows and widowers?" A report is due back to the secretary this Friday.

Meantime, Renison reports on SSAD.org that Kells is still hitting roadblocks with Homeland Security.

"Department of Homeland Security has filed a Motion to Dismiss Mrs. Kells lawsuit, just as they have filed in every other case. They argue that Mrs. Kells is no longer her husband's spouse, and that her children are no longer children of their step-father, and therefore should be automatically denied lawful permanent resident status,” he writes.

Khamphee says the policy "makes no sense. You enter the country legally. We followed the rules. My husband served the country for 17 years. When he died, the government no longer protected his family."

She doesn't know what will happen.

"I hope it changes because this doesn't look good for America. You should be allowed to prove you married in good faith,” she said.

See the latest court filing in the Kells case