Visa Obstacles Thwart Renowned Foreign Scholars
Two Europe-based professors delayed or canceled their trips to the U.S. recently due to problems getting approved for visas. Their experiences are renewing concerns about obstacles put in the way of highly renowned scholars wanting to travel to the U.S. because of their political affiliations and activities or their travel histories.
Both cases came to light last week. In the first case, first reported by the University of Virginia student newspaper, a German professor and expert on far-right politics, Hajo Funke, scheduled to teach two classes at Virginia couldn’t make it to the U.S. for the start of the spring semester after he says his visa application was held up by U.S. immigration authorities. The other case involves a Britain-based professor and architect, Eyal Weizman, who was unable to make it to the opening of an exhibition of his work at Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art and Design after he says his eligibility for visa-free travel to the U.S. was abruptly canceled.
A supporter of Funke believes his past travel to Iran to visit his wife's family is the most likely reason for the delay. Weizman said something about his travels or associations flagged him for additional scrutiny and said U.S. Embassy officials in London told him as much.
These incidents follow a series of others in which students from the Middle East, in particular Iran, have experienced delays getting visas or have been denied entry at U.S. airports despite having been awarded visas to travel.
“What we think is the processing has become much more severe,” said Jeffrey Grossman, an associate professor and chair of Germanic languages and literatures at UVA who invited Funke to teach two courses at the university this semester. One of the courses is on right-wing populism and the far right, and the other is on political and historical memory. The classes are being taught via videoconferencing while Funke continues to wait for his visa.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/24/professors-delay-cancel-travel-us-due-visa-obstacles
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