Stuck in red tape

An indication that the red tape situation has not gotten much better over these past years. It is appalling that this is still happening - this is the reason so many immigrants say they come here illegally. DP

Former Fulbright Scholar not alllowed to return to U.S.
By Jacob Longan - NewsPress

stillwater-newspress.com: Oklahoma State University’s English department thought it had made a hire that would have a tremendous benefit for students.

Then bureaucracy got in the way.

Dr. Azfar Hussain was hired to fill a one-year vacancy in the department. As a Fulbright Scholar, he was required to teach two years in his native Bangladesh after earning his doctorate and master’s degree from Washington State University.

Hussain married an American citizen, California native Melissa Tennyson, in May 2002, and applied for a U.S. visa while he was still here in 2005.

This summer, he was led to believe the visa would be approved before he needed to be in Stillwater in mid-August. After repeated inquiries, word finally came that it was conditionally approved but “waiting on further processing.”

“They didn’t tell us if that meant two days, two weeks, two years, two decades,” said Melissa. “We really had no, no, no idea what that meant.”

Azfar was supposed to teach classes beginning earlier this month but it is unclear when he will be able to return to America, where he lived from 1995 to 2006. The government told the family Azfar is going through a standard waiting period of three to six months that applies to all male immigrants from Bangladesh. Calls to different governmental offices, including congressmen, and an immigration lawyer have not ended his exile. Neither has a letter from OSU to the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh.

A call to the Homeland Security Department seeking comment was referred to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Sharon Rummery, a spokesperson for USCIS, said she could not comment on specific cases.
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