An immigrant working and studying in Texas said she had her visa revoked without warning or explanation, which caused her to lose her job.
Arshia, who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, is studying for a PhD in cancer pharmaceuticals. She was also employed as a pharmaceutical researcher.
“I moved to [the] U.S. for basically continuing my education, and that is a very strong filtration process,” she told KNX News. “So that requires showing financial backing, showing no criminal history in any sort of way, clean social media because they do kind of go through all of that.”
A few weeks ago, she got a call.
“It's like 5 p.m., [the] end of my work day, and I get a call from my DSO, who is basically the primary contact between me and SEVIS, or ICE, and they were like, ‘OK, we have not received any warning. They've just canceled your status in the US’,” she said. “Because there was so much uncertainty around all of this, they didn't even know if I had to leave that night or if I had like a 15-day period. It was just so uncertain.”
The next day, she got an email telling her she had about 15 days to try to reinstate her visa or leave the country as soon as possible.
“It was just a lot,” she said. “How do you pack up your entire life, right?”
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But when her visa was suddenly reinstated, the damage had already been done.
“I do not have a job anymore, and there's just so much economic turbulence and almost like a loss of trust in my visa status,” she said.
The only mark on her record, she said, was a speeding ticket she got a few years ago in Nebraska.
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