sriram@cmu-ri-cive.ARPA (Duvvuru Sriram) (08/03/85)
Currently there is a young guy named Charles Dunne at Madras, who is pretty rough with you. I got married in January and went for a VISA for my wife. He didn't talk much (he looked kind of nervous). He threw out our VISA application and walked out. They seem to have made a point at the Madras Consulate not to issue VISAs to students going for their Phds. If you are doing a Phd and planning to go home (to South) to get married then the chances are that your wife will be rejected a VISA. The guy out there thinks that keeping your wife in India will make you go back. However, he doesn't realize that if you can stay without your wife for 1 year you could stay without her for some more time. I guess his main aim is to create problems for you. A large number of us, who come to study here, normally don't go back. This is the reason they give you, while refusing the VISA. However, about 20, 000 Permanant Resident VISAs can be granted each year, from India. I am not sure why they don't want to fill it with qualified persons, rather than giving it to relatives (except your wife and children). I guess it is politics. Who cares what is good for the country as long as you get votes. A number of scientific organizations, such as IEEE, also want Foriegn students to go back. If this is the situtation, why don't they change their immigration policy instead of being discriminatory to some people? May be US doesn't need Foriegn brains any more. May be they are trying to help the third world nations to keep their brains in the country. I wonder what will happen if US closes its doors to the rest of the world! A letter to the Time magazine posed the following question: "Is massive immigration really that powerful a stimulant to a country? Consider Japan, a tiny island nation with limited natural resources, practically no immigration and a policy of maintaining racial unity. Nevertheless, it is beating us to our knees in maby fields of industry and endeavor" Any comments? I would say that Japan is good at implementing the technology developed in US. Also, I wonder who is responsible for putting man on the Moon? If you take any journal, 60 - 80% of the papers are contributed by Foriegn sounding names. Sriram@cmu-ri-cive.arpa
raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghu Ramakrishnan) (08/27/85)
The visa situation seems to have improved beyond all recognition. I was told that virtually everyone who applied got one, regardless of whether they had aid. This is borne out by the number of Indian (including a large number from Madras) students who arrived at UT a short while ago. I don't know exactly how many because finding that out would involve an operation on the scale of calling the cows home across the sands of Dee! Apparently a new, young consul acted tough to begin with and mellowed considerably shortly before the Fall deadlines.
swami@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA (08/30/85)
I believe practically everyone got visas, EXCEPT those applying for computer science or other fields with the word 'computer' in them!! Maybe somebody out there knows otherwise?
swami@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA (08/31/85)
i subsequently learned that even some of the comp. science guys have been getting visas recently.