Denial of US visas to Russians

[Irina Shevelenko]

Dear Mr. Greenberg and others interested in this matter,

Any denial of visa by an American consulate to your prospective student can and
should be protested. I don't know the statistics of visa denials to students,
but such things do happen. And if the university struggles, it (and its
students) wins. Consuls in the consulate do everything to prevent this
struggle. They tell the applicant that it makes no sense for him (her) to
reapply, because s/he will be denied the visa again, etc.

Please note that no laws regulate issuing of American visas to foreigners;
everything is regulated by some restricted instructions and, ultimately, by how
this or that individual holding the position of consul interprets them in every
given case. Your students were certainly denied visas not for seeking economic
advantage; they must have been denied visas because they were unable to prove
they would return to Russia after the completion of their program of study.
Such things are impossible to prove, which is known to all and every consul. (I
mean, every proof can be declined as insufficient.) It is not illegal for any
foreign student studying in the US to then stay in the US permanently (although
in some cases restrictions apply), if s/he is hired by an employer who can hire
foreigners (and those are numerous). Hence, denial of student visas is the only
instrument of preventing those future hires. Why is this important to prevent?
-- this question can be better answered by someone else.

Here is what you as a university can do. Firstly, you have to win the support
of your Dean's office, ideally -- your President's office. The higher the rank
of the official signing your letter to the consul the better. Your letter must
ask the consul to reconsider his decision etc. (it will help to note the full
name of the applicant and the exact reason for visa denial as it was stated).
In your letter, you may want to reverse the logic of the consul. It is not the
student who chose to go to your university. It is your university which has
decided to offer him (her) admission to your program; that admission was on a
competitive basis, and your school wants to have its "chosen" students in
place. If your program relies on those students as TAs, that should be
mentioned, too. Ultimately, your letter must convey the feeling that your
university will struggle for each and every student to whom the admission was
offered (and who accepted it). Your letter must be addressed to: Consul, Visa
Section, Consulate General of USA, St. Petersburg, etc. (I am sure your
students can supply you with the complete address as well as fax number). It is
better to fax it there and to mail it by some fast mail. Plus, supply your
student with the copy of this letter.

Why would the consul change his mind? Well, because there are things they want
to avoid by all means: a flavor of scandal, publications in press, more protest
letters, protest letters going to their bosses in Washington, DC. Also, please
note. It is generally believed that a certain percentage of those student visa
certificates are "fake" ones, i.e., are somehow (God knows how) issued to
individuals who were not really admitted to any program. If you don't struggle
for your student, you will support consulate's suspicion that this student's
visa certificate was a "fake" one. And it is certainly not in the interests of
your university. Also, consuls are testing your university by these denials. If
you don't protest now, they will deny visas more. By these denials they simply
want to discourage universities from offering admissions to students from
certain countries (i.e., Russia). Whether they are smarter than the academic
community is to be determined.

In addition, please advise your students to acquire some kind of letter from
some kind of employer (an academic one, preferably) that would state, that this
or that employer is interested in hiring this student upon his completion of a
graduate degree. This will allow the consul to pretend that he is changing his
mind because of the new circumstances. They are bureaucrats before and after
all!

Good luck!

Irina Shevelenko,
St. Petersburg

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