F1 visa for Syrians

b_r_um
Mon, 04 Sep 2017 23:54:52 +0000

I suspect your friend got his visa while the order was on hold. It has been “back” in force since a Supreme Court ruling on June 26, with a number of exemptions.

Best case scenario, we go back to the standard visa process and US consulates are instructed to be extra insistent on “binding ties” to a foreign residence for visa applicants from undesired countries. That criterion, when taken literally, is almost impossible to satisfy and is used to deny non-immigrant visas to a majority of visa applicants from some countries.

Canada and Australia are said to have generous immigration policies for college-educated professionals in the English-speaking world. If you are on the market for a permanent home, those might be good locations to consider for college. If you have a specific country in mind that you want to live in after college (e.g. KSA), you’ll want to research which degrees will be helpful for you there. (E.g. if I wanted to live in the US, I would attend a US or Canadian university. If in Germany, I’d attend a university in the European Union.)