It is a nightmare many Iranian students worry about—and one that prompts many to look at universities in other countries.
Saleh Rezaei-Ravesh was 27 months into his doctoral studies in mechanical engineering. He knew that his US visa was good until he got his doctorate—unless he returned to Iran in the meantime. In that case, he would need to get a new visa.
A fellow Iranian at MSU, Faramarz Vafaee, told the campus newspaper Rezaei-Ravesh had gone to Dubai for the new visa and had a one-minute interview with a consular official there. After about 80 days, he received a letter from the consulate denying his visa request for espionage concerns, he told his friend in Michigan.
Rezaei-Ravesh received no explanation as to why the government felt he was a threat, but Vafaee said he believes it is because of the mechanical engineering work Rezaei-Ravesh was doing at MSU.
“What he wants, I guess, is a chance to have another interview,” Vafaee said. “He’s so confused, and his whole career is in jeopardy.”
Manoochehr Kooch-esfahani, associate dean of graduate studies of the MSU College of Engineering, said he wrote a letter to the consul in Dubai to explain the student’s work was far from classified.
“What we do is public information and knowledge,” Kooch-esfahani told the campus newspaper.
Koochesfahani said this is the first time he has seen an instance of visa rejection after an international student has already studied at MSU for years.
He said if Rezaei-Ravesh was not allowed to return to the US, he runs the risk of losing his research funding and the work he has completed so far at MSU over 27 months.
Peter Briggs, director of the university’s Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS), said he became involved immediately after learning of Rezaei-Ravesh’s denial.
“Visa issues do happen a lot with Iran,” Briggs said, adding that MSU had only about 60 students from Iran as of fall 2011.
Briggs said OISS has written to the consulate in Dubai, the National Iranian-American Council and US Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, for help in getting Rezaei-Ravesh’s visa renewed.
The National Iranian-American Council created an online petition to gain support to bring Rezaei-Ravesh back to the US. The petition states, “Saleh’s only crime is that he is an Iranian citizen…. Another dream of a young and bright Iranian is shattered, and the wall of mistrust between the two nations thickened.”
Both Briggs and Kooch-esfahani sent their letters in April and said they have yet to hear anything back from the consulate. “The best option is to get him back at MSU as soon as possible,” Koochesfahani said. “But we’re completely in the dark as to how feasible that is right now.”
