hkaya

I got an offer from both, with a scholarship, in computational science (biology, specifically). I know that UCT has a slighly higher ranking and Cape Town is the city of my dreams, but I am just curious about the experiences of those who attend/previously attended either of these universities, so I can make an informed decision.

I got an approval at the interview, but when my passport was returned, the visa wasn't stamped on it. There was a yellow slip stating 221(g) refusal notice, which stands for administrative processing. It says "we will tell you when it is complete, so that you can send your passport back to us through your post office"

I wasn't really told why the a.p. was held. It could be TAL or something else. Ouch... I was thinking of applying to Canada

Thank you for your answer. I already started to apply to schools in other countries. Do you think it would come up when I apply for other countries' visas.

Greetings from Turkey,I got a fully funded PhD offer from Illinois Institute of Technology on last April. I applied for an F1 visa to enroll in for Fall 2016 semester. Even though I got an approval on my interview, my application status remained under administrative processing for almost six months. I had to defer my admission twice, regardless of my efforts and the university's efforts to contact the embassy several times, since they were extremely indifferent and unhelpful. At the end I got really upset and sent the embassy a veeeeery long e-mail that contained literal sentences like "I can't take this anymore", "WHAT COULD I HAVE EVER DONE TO DESERVE THIS?" and "Even if I get cancer and the only cure is in the US, I will never set foot in your country" (I wasn't drunk or high). At the end of the e-mail I requested the withdrawal of my application, which they instantly agreed to like they had been waiting for me to give up already.My supervisor is trying very hard to help me and he is the coolest person on earth. So, I don't want to let this chance slip away. My question is, what would happen if I tried to apply at the same embassy. %100 administrative processing again? refusal for life? Should I apply for this visa at a different country with a valid excuse (I might do an internship abroad). Any suggestion will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hello Jujubea; 6 months have passed since my interview date. Believing that my visa application was already a lost case (no answer, nothing heard from the embassy despite the efforts from myself and the university) I decided to withdraw my application, which the embassy instantly agreed to. Now I am planning to reapply, but seeing as the political situation in Turkey is nowhere near stable nowadays, I thought that I shouldn't be applying at the same embassy in my city. Instead, I was thinking of applying in a third country, because I might be going to South America for an internship starting next month. What do you suggest I should do at this point?

Hello Jujubea; I understand your point but I was trying to write my e-mails in the most original and unique way possible. I even quoted Obama in one of my e-mails (I think he once said Muslims should not feel like second class citizens or something like that). Anyways, So are you saying they might still ask for additional documents after weeks have passed? That sounds cruel. I booked a month-long trip to south Korea and Japan and I will be away during October. I am going to return in the first week of November. If they do ask, do I have to send documents right away or would there be a deadline? Also, will this administrative processing nonsense affect entrance to other countries? (Japan and SK do not require a visa for Turkey up until 90 days but I want to make sure)

2 months and nothing has changed! I e-mailed the embassy but I am pretty sure I will get the same generic response. What am I going to do when it is January and my case is still pending?? If I'd known, I would've never applied to a U.S university at all. Does anyone know how I can contact an immigration attorney, if possible?

Dear Jujubea; Thank you for the explanatory reply. When I call the embassy in Istanbul, they say they don't have any knowledge about the process and that I should contact the embassy in Ankara (the capital) even though I applied in Istanbul. Also, I sent two e-mails to the embassy in the past and got the exact same reply which was a copy paste of the statement on their website. Are you sure if they even bother to read the e-mails? I already deferred my admission for January, but I am worried that I may never be able to get a visa at all. I don't know, I just have this feeling. And I am starting to think that applicants from Turkey (especially males) are mostly being treated this way because of the attempted military coup thing in July.

Dear jujubea; I applied for an F1 visa in Turkey in order to pursue a phd in the US. The visa officer who interviewed me was very kind. He only asked me four questions, why I was going to the US, where I graduated from, what I will be studying and what my research will focus on. When he saw my I20, he realized the name of the university I will attend and spelled its name with some kind of admiration. Also, he specifically knew about the university I graduated from, because I heard him say "fantastic". I could easily tell how he found my profile to be very plausible. He said "good luck in Chicago" and gave me an approval paper. 10 days later, I got my passport with an additional yellow paper indicating administrative processing. I know there is nothing left to do about it since I have been waiting for nearly 6 weeks since the interview and I even had to defer my phd for one semester but I was wondering where my application got stuck since the officer initially gave me an approval. FYI, my name and surname are very common in Turkey and I will be studying computational drug design. Do you think these facts could have led the embassy to some kind of suspicion? thanks in advance for your answer.

Hello MarVic; It makes me feel a little better to know that at least I am not alone in this situation, thanks for posting I will wait until Monday evening. If nothing changes by then, I will request a deferral from my university, since they already know about what's going on with my visa application.

Thank you for your support If you can work on your application, you still have the chance to get an approval, hopefully. I still haven't got any response and my status is still the same. This whole situation made me mentally depressed, like, literally. I can't even begin to imagine how I will be able to proceed to study a PhD at this point. It will be very hard for me to get it together.

Thank you for your reply My visa appointment was actually on June 30, which is also the date that this process was initiated. So, I might say I still have a little hope. Also, you are right about the lack of update. My status was updated on the 13th of July, so maybe nobody did any investigation since then. I couldn't have applied earlier, because I got my I20 in the beginning of June. I just want to say that while I understand how important it is for them to carry out whatever investigation is required, I would prefer if it weren't done in a way that will hinder the academic progress and ruin the mental well-being of the students. Why won't they be more sensitive about students and education? Many people had to wait for months from what I've been reading online. I even came across a case (from Turkey), where a boy was accepted to a top rank university and had to wait for ONE YEAR to get his visa. His passport was later stolen and he had to go through the procedure all over again. What is the point in applying for a visa to get the education you deserve, if you are going to have to wait for it until you are 30? They could just say "Don't bother applying if you have a common name or surname that might match a criminal", "Don't apply if you are from this country", "Don't apply if you are xxx", etc. Sorry for my emotional outburst, it is really hard to suck it up and let go when you spent money/time/effort on this and everything you planned is about to slide away. It's like you are an athlete about to win a marathon and you break your neck by tripping on something and falling.

Hi everyone I am from Turkey, I will start studying PhD starting August 22. My visa appointment went very well, the officer asked me only three questions, didn't ask for any additional documents and instantly gave me an approval. He even wished me good luck . However, I got my passport back 10 days later, with a yellow-colored paper attached (and without a visa). It was explained that my application required further administrative processing, but it wasn't explained why. Is there anyone here who had a similar experience? Why could this have happened to me? How long did it take you to get your visa issued? Is there anything at all that can be done to expedite the process (although I know the answer is simply no, but one can always hope). If I can't get my visa in time, I will lose my TAship and will have to defer my PhD

Hi all! I have been reading a lot of threads about the sub 3.0 GPA issue and I am worried about it, too. So here is a brief summary of my situation. I am Emre from Turkey, a senior studying Chemistry and doing double major with Chemical and Biological at the highest ranked University in Turkey (according to the Times Higher Edu.). My undergraduate GPA is 2.81 with the grade average of the last two years being 3.04. The reason is that I got very low grades throughout the first two years of my study. For grad school, I want to study either computational biology or biomaterials (drug delivery). I have worked at four different laboratories so far and two of them are directly related to my future goals. However, I don't have any publications yet. I also completed a summer internship at the Clinical Trials department of Novartis. My GRE scores: 154 in verbal, 169 in Q and 4.0 in AW TOEFL: 112 (got 30 from the listening and the writing parts) I have two professors and an associate professor who agreed to write me recommendation letters. Two of them are my current or previous research supervisors and the third one is my academic advisor. I am planning to apply to a lot of programs, here is the list: I already applied to UDel PhD in Chem Eng. Planning on applying to University at Buffalo, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Stony Brook, PhD in material Sciences and Engineering Illinois Inst of Tech, PhD in chemical Engineering MSc in Chemical Engineering or Pharmaceutical Sciences at Waterloo (although it requires me to find a potential supervisor and that is very difficult to achieve as they either completely ignore my e-mails or they lack sufficient funds) MSc in University of Alberta, Western University, Calgary, Queen's Uppsala, Chalmers and Linkoping in Sweden (MSc) Twente and Groningen in Netherlands. Obviously I can't apply to all of them since it is extremely costly. So I would like to know if one or more of these options are far from realistic for my situation, so that I can avoid wasting money on them. Because of my GPA I am constantly being discouraged, telling myself "should I even apply at all?" I asked about the GPA policy to some of the universities above by e-mail but they simply responded by copy pasting what is already stated on their website. Overall, I would really appreciate it if you could give me an idea about my chances and possible steps that I can take for the future. Thanks in advance