July 19, 2019
The US consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, has accused a German-Iranian father of using his late son’s funeral as an excuse to move to the US. Seyed Shahram Iranbomy was denied the visa he needed to attend. He has lived in Germany for 40 years.
The German-Iranian father was denied a three-day visa because the US said he was using “fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact” to obtain it.
Dr. Iranbomy’s 20-year-old son, Irman, died in a car accident in the Washington, DC, area June 10. He had been studying at a university in the US where his mother also lives.
Iranbomy, a human rights and discrimination lawyer who runs his own law firm in Frankfurt, told the German state radio Deutsche Welle (DW) that the US consulate said he was taking advantage of his son’s death to immigrate to the US.
DW said it had received photographs of official US consulate documents from Iranbomy that state he was denied a non-immigrant visa because he “sought to procure a visa, other documentation, admission to the US, or immigration benefit by fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact.”
“You’re using the death of your son to immigrate to America, you’re not telling the truth,” Iranbomy quoted a US consular officer as saying. He said he was also told that he “did not have roots in Germany.”
Iranbomy was born in Iran but has German citizenship and has lived in the country for more than 40 years. “I am more German than Iranian,” he told DW. He said he was not interested in moving to the US.
The US consulate in Frankfurt declined to comment to DW, saying that all such cases are confidential and can only be discussed with the applicant under US privacy law. Iranbomy said he had appealed the decision but has not yet received a response.
During Barack Obama’s presidency, he had received a 10-year visa for both business and leisure travel, but this was revoked in May 2017, weeks after Donald Trump took office.
Iranbomy told DW his son was an active young man. He had attended a youth parliament session at the German Bundestag in Berlin just a few days before his death, and was also a commander in the youth fire brigade.
Iranbomy described himself to DW as “an American friend.” He is listed on the website of the US Consulate in Frankfurt as a lawyer for US citizens who need legal services in Germany. He said he has represented numerous Americans.
He said the visa denial was not only a violation of his dignity, but also his son’s. “My son still has dignity today; not only my dignity is violated, but the rights of the person who is dead.”
He said he wants to ask President Trump how he would feel if he was not allowed to attend the funeral of his own son. “I ask you, if your son was dead and the government didn’t allow you to give him to the earth, what would you do?” Iranbomy asked.