As Iranian student Azadeh tells me about the rumors that circulated among her friends about how to get a student visa to the U.S., she sounds like the foreign students I?ve encountered on so many internet forums.
But there?s one rumor Azadeh tells me that?s unlikely to go around in other countries:
"Everybody says, 'Oh don?t go to Dubai,'" Azadeh says of her friends back in Iran. "'They don?t give you a visa. Everybody that went to Cyprus they got it, but in Dubai it?s so much harder.'"
Where to go to get a visa is just one hurdle students applying to the U.S. from Iran encounter that most other international students never have to consider. There?s no U.S. embassy or consulate in Iran, so students have to travel to one of a select number of neighboring countries where the embassy will accept Iranian applicants.
Azadeh is a 3rd year PhD student in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland. We meet to talk about what it's like to apply from Iran to study in the U.S., and are joined by the advisor (who asked to remain anonymous).
Azadeh and the EducationUSA advisor agree that studying abroad is as highly valued among Iranian students as among students anywhere. It?s particularly common among high-achieving Iranian students, says Azadeh:
Azadeh laughs as she says the only reason she didn?t come to America sooner is that she was ?lazier? than her friends. I find that hard to believe as she tells me she by putting together an Excel spreadsheet with information about every school she was interested in.
Ultimately, though, she says:
However, the politics between America and Iran can complicate matters. When I ask Azadeh whether studying in the U.S. is viewed negatively by any in Iran because of the political relationship between the countries, she says no, but adds, ?There are few people that are very?what should I say? Politics people
She looks for guidance to the advisor, who fills in the rest:
Azadeh and the advisor tell me the mail between Iran and the U.S. is unreliable, which can make something as simple as sending money between the two countries prohibitively difficult.
?I had this problem, and everybody has it, since they have to pay the application fee somehow, they have to send their documentations,? Azadeh says, and proceeds to tell her story of :
A full year after she was supposed to start at the University of Maryland, Azadeh finally began her PhD studies. Even then, her visa problems were not over. Stay tuned for , in which Azadeh talks about the struggle of having a single-entry visa, and what the recent decision to allow Iranian students to receive multiple-entry visas will mean for her.
Azadeh says thinking about the visa process still stresses her out. ?When I came here, even after 2 years, I was having bad dreams that I was stuck without a visa in my country and I cannot come back,? she says.
?It?s a very bad feeling that I still have.?
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