Hi friends! This is from my... well... so Diata came from Mali and stayed at my grandparents house and became a facet of our lives for a couple of years. This is her story, so if you have connections, let me know and let's see what we can do about this.
Dear Friends,
I am writing you this email in desperation, needing your help. I am stranded in the land of Timbuktu.
My name is Diata Berthe. I am from Mali, West Africa (by the way, Timbuktu does exist and it is in Mali). I came to the USA with the help of an American family who have been my sponsors. I have been in the USA under an F1 student visa from July, 2003 to May, 2009. When I first went to the USA,I spoke very little English and did not have a high school diploma either. I started with an ESL program at SUNY Albany to improve my English. Then from there, I moved to Hickory, NC and enrolled at Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) in their Early Childhood Certificate Program. At the same time, I attended GED classes for a year. I did this to improve my English. From GED classes, I changed to Adult High School at Caldwell Community College (CCC) to get my high school diploma, so I could study for an Associate Degree.
I could have settled for a certificate and be finished. But, I did not want to settle for a certificate only. When I enrolled in the Adult High School at CCC, I was doing college and high school at same time. I had to take 12 to 14 hours of college credit each semester in order to keep my student visa since I could not get a student visa for High School. I was forced to do both together because I wanted to succeed. I failed the first high school placement test, cried, but tried again a second time and passed. I then had schedule conflicts between my college and high school classes, partly because the two schools were almost 1 ½ hour drive apart. It was a lot of work, but I managed to do it.
Even with all those obstacles, I managed to graduate with honors from Adult High School at CCC in 2007. In 2009 I graduated with honors again with two Associate degrees - Early Childhood Education and Elementary Teacher Assistant - from CVCC in Hickory, NC.
After graduating, I decided to take one year off under an Optional Training Visa (OPT) and work at CVCC Day Care Center. I started that OPT May 15th 2009 and it was over May 14th 2010. After the OPT, I renewed my F1 student visa for another year and was registered to return to classes in August 2010 to complete a bachelor degree. In between time, I decided to go home to Mali to visit my family during the summer and return in time for Fall classes. I left the USA May 27th for Mali with a round trip ticket return date July 18th. Before coming to Mali, I sent many e-mails to the US Embassy in Mali asking them questions about how I could be sure I would be allowed to return to the USA to complete my education. I never did get any answer to my questions. Every time I asked them questions, I received an automatic reply telling me to go to their website to get my answers. The questions I was asking them were not answered on their website.
After many attempts I was finally able to schedule an appointment with the US Embassy in Bamako, Mali for June 8th as was required for me to be able to re-enter the USA. I had to pay $390 for the visa application and interview. At that interview they denied my visa. The Consul who interviewed me June 8th, told me that I did not prove to him that I had worked hard enough at school. He refused to look at my transcript. I was surprised he said that without even having opened my transcript to see my GPA. I have a 3.72 GPA. He did not even explain to me why my visa was denied. I strongly believe that those Consuls do what they feel like doing with very little regard for the applicants. Having had to pay $390, I should have had the right to present my case and not be simply told "No! You are dismissed."
On June 9th, I rescheduled online another appointment for July 13th at 7:00 AM and again paid $390. This was the earliest available date. When I went for that interview, I was told, along with seven others present, that they had changed their application form to a new one on June 15th (after I had already rescheduled). So, I was told to go back and fill up the new application form number DS160 instead DS156 and DS158 which I had already completed after downloading them from their website. When I finished filling it out, I went back to the Embassy, but by then it was 8:30. I could not see the Consul because my interview time was already passed. They had never tried to inform us the form was changed even if they knew we had appointments and would all be sent back and have to reschedule for a later date. I wonder how many others were victims of the same problem.
Again I had to schedule a new appointment. The earliest appointment time I could get was July 26th at 14:00, although my return ticket was for July 18th. The travel agent worked hard to reschedule my departure date for after the 26th, but Delta Airline wanted over $4,000 to reschedule. Congressman David McHenry's office in Hickory, NC asked the Consular Office to give me an expedited interview for before the 18th, but the Consul, Jason Chiodi, flatly refused. July 26th, my visa was denied a second time although many friends in America and other countries had sent emails to the Consul on my behalf. The Consul who did my second interview, Jim Wilson, was more polite than the first Consul. He took time to tell me the reason they would not give me the visa. He told me that it took me too long to finish my two year degrees. When I explained to him why it took me longer, he told me that he understood, but he still did not give me the visa.
To my surprise, what the second Consul said was different from what the first one had said. When they denied my visa at my first interview, I wrote an e-mail to the Congressman's Office in Hickory to see if they could do something to help me. They were told by Consul Jason Chiodi that I did not show enough proof that when I would finish my education in USA I would return to Mali. At my second interview, I went with as many proofs as I could. After presenting all those proofs, I was told that it took me too long to finish with my two year degrees. They said that they denied my visa under section b214, whatever that is, I do not know. To me it seems they are changing their story from one interview to the next. I need your help to straighten out the story they keep changing. Why did I have to wait 1 ½ months longer and pay another $390 to be told what I could have been told at my first interview? Students are not rich.
During my second interview, I told the Consul that I have all my belongings, important documents, my debit card, a car and motor scooter back in NC and that I was taking care of my sponsor's affairs in the USA. They are Americans but currently live in Indonesia. I was told that someone could send me my things by mail. I have been living in Hickory with an elderly couple, both in their eighties, and helping them with household responsibilities.
The questions I have is if millions of Americans travel during different holidays, why me going to visit my family after not seeing them for nearly 7 years should become a big problem, as if I had killed someone. The reason I am sending this e-mail to you, is that I need public support for my case. I know that this does not only happen to me, plenty of international students are in my position.
Why should a student who comes to the USA not be able to return home part way through their education to visit their family knowing for sure that they will be allowed to return to the USA? What if they need to go home for an emergency? For example if someone in their family is terminally ill and they would like to see them one last time. If they dare leave the USA, they may never be allowed back in, even though they already had a valid visa, are properly enrolled in school and have a scholarship or have already paid their tuition for the next semester by the hard work of their parents. Their fate is always in the hands of an embassy staff member in their home country. That person does what he/she feels like doing. Can that be called a fair system? Why can't the USA issue exit/re-entry permits to students who already have valid visas like many other countries do for their foreign residents? The foreign students in the USA are only free if they stay in the USA. They don't have the right to go back to their home land and return to the USA easily. When they are in the USA, they have many challenges to overcome. I want to add that all students coming to the USA to study are not criminals and they should not have to feel like they are prisoners in a prison camp or cannot leave the country like people in communist countries. American people pride themselves in saying that all people in their nation have freedom, but the way Embassy workers treat people does not reflect that.
To me this system goes right along with their new law that says you cannot open a bank account in the USA without a Social Security number. When foreign students first come in, everybody knows they will not have a Social Security number to open a bank account. Plenty of those students are forced to ask their teachers or their friends if they can use their bank account to deposit or transfer their money since they cannot open their own bank account. Talk about a system! Perhaps they are expected to bring along enough money with them for the four years of their studies and keep it under their mattress. I went to the USA in 2003 and I could not get a Social Security number until 2007 and that number is not even working right yet. When I worked at CVCC and it was time to run my SS # in the system to get my pay check, it shows that it is an invalid number. I have been to the Social Security office, the IRS office, and then even to the Congressman's office, trying to solve that problem and did not get anywhere. I was told I should hire a lawyer to help me. Why should I, as a poor student, have to hire a lawyer to help me correct an error in the Social Security computer system?
I would have plenty more stories to tell about the problems foreign students face when they go to the USA. I will stop here for now. I am pleading for your help with my case. I know many other foreign students are in my situation and this issue needs to be addressed and a solution found. Now, I don't know what to do. I am asking you to take my case to the public in order to intervene for me with the Embassy so I can return to finish my education.
Thank you for taking time to read this e-mail. I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Diata Berthe
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