Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
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Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#2Their decision was probably based in some way (assuming it's based on available information, which is admittedly risky) in his marriage to a foreign national while expressing interest in moving to the states, and the embassy's reluctance to chance him violating his visa permissions and in some way moving here with his wife in a permanent resident-alien w/o a visa type manner.
Not claiming to know anything special, but if that really is the only perturbed variable, it most likely hinged on that. Or familial ties that are somehow inscrutable. All conjecture, but I find these single cases to be ridiculous, because there are competent individuals in government who oft do what they're supposed to, even if the whole government mechanism appears corrupt and broken. Most likely there was a legitimate reason, and of course we only have one side of the story here, by an associate professor and his PhD student.
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#3Their decision was probably based in some way (assuming it's based on available information, which is admittedly risky) in his marriage to a foreign national while expressing interest in moving to the states, and the embassy's reluctance to chance him violating his visa permissions and in some way moving here with his wife in a permanent resident-alien w/o a visa type manner. Not claiming to know anything special, bu…
> but I find these single cases to be ridiculous, because there are competent individuals in government who oft do what they're supposed to, even if the whole government mechanism appears corrupt and broken. Most likely there was a legitimate reason, and of course we only have one side of the story here, by an associate professor and his PhD student.
You'll understand only when you face it. What legitimate reasons are you applying to justify treatment of any or every person on the planet as potential threat? Without a means for recourse. And then if you're agreeable to the logic of scrutiny and transparency from others then why not apply the same logic to the individuals in the Government?
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#4I can understand what he's feeling as i'm in a very similar situation.
I was offered a job by a San Francisco-based startup in January. I applied for a visa at the local US embassy, the interview went fine and the consular officer said she was happy to approve it but that I had been flagged for an additional background check which should take about two weeks.
Five months later and i'm still stuck in "Administrative Processing". All enquiries have come back with a blanket "matter of national security, we can't give any more information" cover. It's extremely frustrating. What makes it even worse is just the incompetence of it all. I have been going back and forth to the US for nearly ten years to see family pretty much every summer without a problem, why am I only now subject to an extremely lengthy background check?
My wife quit her job and we gave up our house in anticipation of our move and we've effectively been in limbo since.
If anything, the way we've been treated has made me never want to step foot in the US again.
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#5...not sure what sort of "moral debt" (second bullet point) Omar had to the country - is there some reason he should have had to contribute anything to the US economy? Its not like the military where you commit to extra years of service for the financial inducements attached to further study. He's probably already contributed more than most Americans just in his research during the years of his PhD. As an American doing a PhD in the UK, I don't feel I owe a "moral debt" to contribute to the economy here when I am done.
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#6...not sure what sort of "moral debt" (second bullet point) Omar had to the country - is there some reason he should have had to contribute anything to the US economy? Its not like the military where you commit to extra years of service for the financial inducements attached to further study. He's probably already contributed more than most Americans just in his research during the years of his PhD. As an American do…
Research universities are phenomenally expensive and heavily subsidized creatures. This guy received $250k in government grants that paid his tuition and stipend.
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#7Their decision was probably based in some way (assuming it's based on available information, which is admittedly risky) in his marriage to a foreign national while expressing interest in moving to the states, and the embassy's reluctance to chance him violating his visa permissions and in some way moving here with his wife in a permanent resident-alien w/o a visa type manner. Not claiming to know anything special, bu…
It would be great to know the full story. Unfortunately, if it has to do with national security, we probably will never know.
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#8...not sure what sort of "moral debt" (second bullet point) Omar had to the country - is there some reason he should have had to contribute anything to the US economy? Its not like the military where you commit to extra years of service for the financial inducements attached to further study. He's probably already contributed more than most Americans just in his research during the years of his PhD. As an American do…
Research universities are phenomenally expensive and heavily subsidized creatures. This guy received $250k in government grants that paid his tuition and stipend.
He also devoted all his time and might to do research. It's not like he was sitting staring at a wall
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#9Their decision was probably based in some way (assuming it's based on available information, which is admittedly risky) in his marriage to a foreign national while expressing interest in moving to the states, and the embassy's reluctance to chance him violating his visa permissions and in some way moving here with his wife in a permanent resident-alien w/o a visa type manner. Not claiming to know anything special, bu…
The problem is that there is no due process for these things.
You're always playing a bit of a lottery whenever you interact with, well, just about anything. But when domestic police screw up (or not!) and you get in trouble, there's at least a process in place that tries to smooth things out. It's still not a guarantee, but if you didn't actually do anything wrong, the process makes a decent stab at ensuring that fact comes to light.
But start crossing a border and everything changes. A single wage slave having a bad day can ruin you. Low-level consulate worker decided you screwed something up, even though you think you didn't? Well, too bad. Go find another country to live in.
For whatever reason, we completely throw out all these principles the moment we look at people crossing a border. And worse, everyone thinks this is fine. Foreigners have to rights, and people seem to think that's how it should be.
Re: Jordanian citizen was denied re-entry to the US on eve of his PhD defense at JHU
#10Are we going to trawl up and link every single case of someone being denied re-entry to the US? It's just getting rather tedious.
Though as the constant karma farming off similarly tedious and usually poorly researched and written blog posts of the last week continues unabated perhaps I am in a minority of readers who gets their news from decent sources and likes to come to HN for interesting technical articles.