Thousands of Bangladeshi students are awaiting their slots for visa-related appointments at the US embassy, with the backlog of applications causing students to defer their sessions.
Aneel (not his real name), got accepted at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his classes are expected to start in mid-August.
However, his visa appointment at the embassy has been scheduled for October 22, nearly two months after his session is expected to start.
“I am afraid that I may have to defer my classes at my dream university,” a disheartened Aneel recently told Dhaka Tribune.
“I worked very hard to get here, the process was so extensive and nerve-wracking. I never thought I would get stuck at the last stage due to visa issues,” he said.
But Aneel is one of the lucky ones. A large number of students have been given appointments in 2023.
The US embassy in Dhaka issued non-immigrant F1 category visas to around 8,800 Bangladeshi students — a record number — in 2019.
However, visa services were disrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the embassy is still struggling to cope with the backlog of unprocessed applications.
The US embassy has been unable to open slots for visa appointments in accordance with the demand of the students despite the time of the year being the busiest, as most students join the fall session.
According to some of the applicants who attended a seminar at the embassy on May 11, staff shortage, renovation inside the embassy and a long backlog of previous applications due to Covid-19 had constrained the embassy’s efforts to handle such a huge amount of applications from students.
However, students are not ready to accept this excuse as it has been a while since the world settled into the new normal and US missions in other countries are issuing student visas regularly.
In a case similar to Aneel’s, another US visa applicant Shaila Ara (not her real name) fears losing her spot at Georgia State University. She has been offered a full-funded admission along with a graduate assistantship.
“I am a job holder, but right now besides everything I always keep checking the visa appointment page, counting down till slots open,” she told the correspondence.
“It is not just me; thousands of students are spending sleepless nights in distress with the fear of not getting a visa. Meanwhile, last month the US embassy in India officially announced prioritizing student visas and it started working on that immediately,” she said.
According to those awaiting visas, officials of Education USA also assured the students of issuing more visas at the seminar on May 11.
The next day, the embassy issued a bulk number of visas for the months of October and November but it was in vain because classes had already started two months before that.
Moreover, students complained about the US embassy being vague in delivering messages to them.
‘In the dark, hanging by a thread’
One of them, Mahbubul Haque Bhuiyan, said the lack of communication had left students in the dark about what to do.
“Last year, the embassy issued emergency visas for students in July. Thus, they made it to the US at the last moment,” he said.
“For those two years Covid-19 was a major issue, but we thought at least now the process would have got back to normal. We just want some clear communication from their side. Even if they cannot issue visas, they should let us know. We are literally hanging by a thread here,” he added.
On May 13, a six-member student delegation on behalf of the applicants met with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, urging him to relay their concerns to the relevant authorities and to take necessary steps.
They submitted a letter signed by 350 students who had been accepted into different universities in the US this year.
According to the delegates, the minister empathized with their hardship and assured them of writing to the US mission to speed up the process so that the students did not lose an opportunity they had worked so hard to get.
Emdadul Islam Chowdhury, director at the Foreign Minister’s Office, acknowledged the visit but declined to comment when asked about an update.
