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This is my fault. Trying to make amends.
SHORT VERSION: I helped an online international friend secure a one-month internship at an American university, to be completed just three months before she graduates med school in Turkey. I *thought* I was supposed to write an invitation letter to go along with the acceptance letter from the school. The interviewing officer, as best I can tell, took one look at my letter and thought this was a front for a green card marriage, rejecting her visa out of hand. She's on the verge of graduating - she has every reason to go back unless she plans on throwing her entire career away. Should I call the embassy to explain the situation? Or would that just make things worse for her? I don't want to have screwed her out of any chance of matching for residency here. Her dream was to become a doctor, and to do so in the United States.
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LONG VERSION: An international friend of mine was accepted for a one-month internship at a school in the United States. She graduates from med school two months after this internship is meant to end, and needs to be back in Turkey to do that unless she intends to entirely derail her career before it can even start.
She had been accepted to an internship at a school in Germany, but jumped at the chance to come here instead. She wants to complete the US Medical License Exam and match for residency in the US after graduating, and visiting would be a great opportunity to speak to residency coordinators, both finding out exactly what she needs to do and realistically assessing her chances of earning such a position in the programs she's interested in.
Her (female) German friend had written an invitation letter to go along with the acceptance letter from the German school. Knowing little about the visa application process, I thought it would be a good idea for me to do the same.
Her visa interview lasted mere minutes before she received the 214(b) rejection notice. From talking with her afterwards, it sounds like the interviewing officer took one look at my invite which accompanied the school acceptance letter and suspected this was a front for a green card marriage. It most certainly is not. She *has* to go back at the end of the internship in order to graduate. Our contact has been purely online up to this point - this would merely be our first meeting in person, and the thought was that I would go over and attend her graduation, meet family, if and only if we got along well enough to justify it.
I want to see her become a doctor, and I want to help her with that as I can. Call me a naive idealist, but I still believe in the American dream. Yes, I care about her, but any notion of marriage would require spending enough time together in person (years) to decide we actually wanted that. Her ever coming back to the US in the first place depends heavily on her both wanting and being able to secure her place here, which means scoring better on the USMLE than we expect domestic graduates to in order to be considered at all.
I screwed up, she was denied a visa because of me, and I'm terrified this will nix not just the internship, but any chance of getting a visa should she match for residency as well. Should I call the embassy in Ankara and try to explain the situation? Or would that just make things worse?
I should note that she's Syrian, but hasn't set foot there since before the war started. Started out as random friends on ********, read into some schools for her and delivered her paperwork to the school where she got accepted. She's on track to place for residency in Turkey and investigating opportunities in Germany and England as well if US residency is either too difficult to realistically pursue or she decides she isn't interested in living here.
I understand that if the embassy folks weren't being suspicious then they wouldn't be doing their jobs. Just trying to decide if I can or should try set the record straight, and whether that would help her. I'd rather not land myself on a no-fly list or something for talking to someone from Syria in the first place.
SHORT VERSION: I helped an online international friend secure a one-month internship at an American university, to be completed just three months before she graduates med school in Turkey. I *thought* I was supposed to write an invitation letter to go along with the acceptance letter from the school. The interviewing officer, as best I can tell, took one look at my letter and thought this was a front for a green card marriage, rejecting her visa out of hand. She's on the verge of graduating - she has every reason to go back unless she plans on throwing her entire career away. Should I call the embassy to explain the situation? Or would that just make things worse for her? I don't want to have screwed her out of any chance of matching for residency here. Her dream was to become a doctor, and to do so in the United States.
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LONG VERSION: An international friend of mine was accepted for a one-month internship at a school in the United States. She graduates from med school two months after this internship is meant to end, and needs to be back in Turkey to do that unless she intends to entirely derail her career before it can even start.
She had been accepted to an internship at a school in Germany, but jumped at the chance to come here instead. She wants to complete the US Medical License Exam and match for residency in the US after graduating, and visiting would be a great opportunity to speak to residency coordinators, both finding out exactly what she needs to do and realistically assessing her chances of earning such a position in the programs she's interested in.
Her (female) German friend had written an invitation letter to go along with the acceptance letter from the German school. Knowing little about the visa application process, I thought it would be a good idea for me to do the same.
Her visa interview lasted mere minutes before she received the 214(b) rejection notice. From talking with her afterwards, it sounds like the interviewing officer took one look at my invite which accompanied the school acceptance letter and suspected this was a front for a green card marriage. It most certainly is not. She *has* to go back at the end of the internship in order to graduate. Our contact has been purely online up to this point - this would merely be our first meeting in person, and the thought was that I would go over and attend her graduation, meet family, if and only if we got along well enough to justify it.
I want to see her become a doctor, and I want to help her with that as I can. Call me a naive idealist, but I still believe in the American dream. Yes, I care about her, but any notion of marriage would require spending enough time together in person (years) to decide we actually wanted that. Her ever coming back to the US in the first place depends heavily on her both wanting and being able to secure her place here, which means scoring better on the USMLE than we expect domestic graduates to in order to be considered at all.
I screwed up, she was denied a visa because of me, and I'm terrified this will nix not just the internship, but any chance of getting a visa should she match for residency as well. Should I call the embassy in Ankara and try to explain the situation? Or would that just make things worse?
I should note that she's Syrian, but hasn't set foot there since before the war started. Started out as random friends on ********, read into some schools for her and delivered her paperwork to the school where she got accepted. She's on track to place for residency in Turkey and investigating opportunities in Germany and England as well if US residency is either too difficult to realistically pursue or she decides she isn't interested in living here.
I understand that if the embassy folks weren't being suspicious then they wouldn't be doing their jobs. Just trying to decide if I can or should try set the record straight, and whether that would help her. I'd rather not land myself on a no-fly list or something for talking to someone from Syria in the first place.
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