Stuck inside of Boston with the student visa blues

When Umair Ahsun, 33, arrived in Boston from Lahore, Pakistan, three years ago to study aerospace engineering, he anticipated a bright future. He never expected to feel so caged.

Ahsun's student visa expired more than a year ago. Although he is able to remain in the United States legally as long as he is a full-time student, Ahsun hasn't seen his family in three years. Going home and applying for a renewed visa, he feels, is too risky.

My wife and I ''are trapped here," Ahsun said. ''If we knew this beforehand, we may have taken that into consideration before coming here."

Despite efforts by the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs to streamline the visa application process, many Arab students here say they are resigned to staying stateside for the duration of their education, rather than risk going home and having to renew their visas.

The bureau says that 97 percent of visas and visa renewals are processed within one or two days, and the waiting period for applications sent to Washington for additional screening has been reduced to two weeks.

But students such as Ahsun say the stories they have heard from friends and relatives are more real to them than government statistics. Ahsun recalled two brothers who lived in California and went home to Saudi Arabia for a wedding. One received a renewed visa in two weeks; the other had to wait for six months.

''They were brothers!" Ahsun said.

The perception among Arab students that visa renewal is risky lingers from the massive visa renewal delays of 2002 and 2003, after the State Department implemented more security measures, including personal interviews and finger scans for almost all visa applicants.

It is also true that many Arab students continue to face greater scrutiny in their visa applications than others. Students from 26 countries must register with the United States and submit to detailed background checks and exit confirmation following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; those nations include Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.

Jane Etish-Andrews, director of the International Center at Tufts University, said she advises Arab students who want to go home to prepare to be away for a month.

Graduate students more than undergraduates particularly fear missing a semester, as there is more at stake, she said. ''They can't plan what happens," Etish-Andrews said. ''When they get stuck, their advisers are not happy about them missing work. They can't even say they will be back in two weeks, because they might not be."

Ashraf Al Daoud, 29, is a Fulbright scholar at Boston University whose student visa is expired. He hasn't seen his family in Amman, Jordan, for a year, and plans to go at least one more year before returning home.

''When you are away from your people, you feel isolated," he said.

As a Fulbright scholar, his chances of getting a visa renewal are high. But he prefers not to take any chances. Sharing a three-bedroom apartment with Daoud is Boston University student Amine Rahmouni El Idrissi of Morocco. Rahmouni said that before Sept. 11, he could obtain a visa in Casablanca in one day. Though the US Department of State website currently lists a same-day processing period for visa applications in Casablanca, Rahmouni is skeptical.

Now he has to make the choice in January, when his visa expires: take the risk of returning to his home, which will require renewing his visa, or play it safe by staying in the United States. While an expired visa would be a roadblock to traveling outside the United States, denial of a visa renewal, he said, would be worse. ''Careerwise, it's the end," he said.

While fears hold some Arab students back from returning home, immigration attorneys say there are ways students can tell ahead of time if they have a chance of not being renewed. The main reason foreign students are denied visa renewals is that they can't persuade consular affairs officials that they'll return to their home countries when they finish their studies, according to immigration attorney Richard Costa. He said the possibility of being denied increases the longer a person has stayed in the United States.

Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, said that fewer international students are being admitted into the United States because fewer are applying for visas. In 2001, the bureau reported 663,157 student visa applications and approved 560,499. In 2002, student visa applications fell to 598,629, of which 492,279 were approved. Last year, the bureau reported total student applications were 562,863, with 478,219 approved.

Boston-based immigration attorney Paull Hejinian said that when his clients approach him with visa concerns, the first question he asks is whether they can think of any reason they might be denied. Such reasons include military experience in their home countries; whether they applied for a green card, which indicates they have tried to immigrate; and whether they have family connections with organizations or political leaders that oppose the United States.

Only a handful of applications he has handled were sent to Washington for added scrutiny, he said. When this happens, the government won't release any information on why the check is occurring or how long it will take, Hejinian said. And it's almost impossible to fight a visa denial, he said.

Hejinian's clients are ''truly mystified" when their visas are delayed or denied, he said. ''You can imagine that, six years into your PhD, even the remote possibility of being denied is enough to keep someone in Cambridge," Hejinian said.