S.F. State prof stranded in Canada gets his visa
Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
(09-13) 10:40 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco State Arabic professor who has been stranded in Canada for three months while waiting for the U.S. State Department to give him security clearance and issue him a visa can now return home.
Assistant professor Mohammad Ramadan Hassan Salama, who traveled to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on June 20 and was stuck there after the consulate canceled his scholar visa, was called by the consulate in Toronto, Canada, today and told that he could pick up a new visa on Thursday, his attorney Clark M. Trevor said.
"We have an immense burden removed," said Paul Sherwin, dean of the College of Humanities at San Francisco State. "He is somebody who is very dear to me and he has worked so hard, and for somebody to have to undergo such an ordeal is awful. We are most concerned about him, but clearly we are also concerned about the students and how this has impacted them."
His classes at San Francisco State University have been covered by a temporary replacement.
"My client is ecstatic after 90 days in Canada," Trevor said. "He can get on a plane and come back here and resume teaching his classes. He is the kind of person this country needs in these tumultuous times. He is doing great service in advancing knowledge about Islam."
Salama's troubles began in June, when he arrived in Canada for what he thought was a two-day stay to change his temporary scholar visa, which was due to expire. He planned to exchange it at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto for the more coveted O-1 visa, granted only to those with extraordinary ability in sciences, arts, education, business or athletics. By law, he had to go outside the country to get the visa.
But without explanation, a consular officer canceled the Egyptian-born academic's visa and refused to issue another visa. He was fingerprinted, questioned and told he could not return to the United States until he received security clearance.
They didn't tell him why he was flagged for review or when he would get a new visa, although he suspected it was his nationality and common name, which is similar to that of one of the men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Salama, 38, who has been teaching at San Francisco State since last fall, has lived in the United States for seven years and received his doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
He is married to an American but has been unable to get a green card because of a dispute with his home country. The Egyptian government paid for his education with a requirement that he return home for at least two years. He has tried to pay back the money, which his attorney says is about $50,000 but the government wants closer to $80,000, all at once.
San Francisco State hired Salama last fall as its first Arabic scholar to help build its Arabic and Middle Eastern programs, which have become popular since 9/11.
