Embassy closure forces Bangladeshi students to defer US enrolment

The closure of the US embassy in Bangladesh may force students planning to enrol in American institutions to defer their places.

The embassy in Dhaka has been closed or partially closed throughout July and August, following civil unrest across the country that led to the ousting of the former prime minister. 

Nearly all appointments have been cancelled during that time, including for thousands of students awaiting interviews for F-1 visas to allow them to study in the US. 

The embassy was also set to hold several “super Friday” events throughout July and August, during which hundreds of students would be interviewed each day to expedite visa processing ahead of the new academic year, but the majority of these were also cancelled. 

Over 13,000 Bangladeshi nationals studied in the US in 2022-23 and the Dhaka embassy is ranked seventh in the world among US outposts in terms of the number of student visas issued. 

However, as the academic year begins in mid-August, many students are now set to miss the start of their courses and may be forced to wait another year to enrol. 

“The students are stuck in limbo, and they have no idea what they could do,” said Ahad Farhan, a Bangladesh-based business development manager at MPower Financing. 

According to Mr Farhan, the embassy is taking some emergency requests from students, but these are only on a “small scale”. 

The US has also reserved some appointment slots at its Kolkata embassy in India for Bangladeshi students, “but that also has not been of much use”, said Mr Farhan. Most Bangladeshi nationals require a visa to travel to India and the Indian embassy has also been closed during the unrest, resuming “limited operations” on 13 August. 

A State Department spokesperson told Times Higher Education that the embassy “continues to process visas and passports for emergency travel with its limited staffing capacity”.

“We recognise the challenge this poses to Bangladesh residents with planned travel, including prospective students, and have worked with the US mission in India to help provide interview slots for Bangladeshi students.”

The spokesperson advised affected students to request an expedited appointment or visit the embassy’s website for details of appointments in India. Some applicants can also request an interview waiver. 

“Please note that even with an expedited appointment, some students may not make their travel dates and should reach out to their schools to update them of the circumstances or seek a deferral,” the spokesperson said. 

The response to the situation from US universities has been mixed, with some allowing students to start online or offering late enrolment.

However, others have refused to budge. According to Sharifa Sultana, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a former lecturer in Bangladesh, “several students have also said their schools did not allow them to defer their starting date and cancelled their scholarships and other funding supports as they failed to obtain their visa on time”. 

Dr Sultana described the situation as “heart-breaking”, considering the money students will likely have spent before reaching the visa interview stage, including on application fees, language test costs and for many, airfares and deposits on accommodation in the US.  

For poorer students, “their plan to pursue a degree abroad cost the family income of six months roughly even before arrival, and yet they are not getting to start the degree programme in their dream universities because of reasons beyond their control”, she said. 

Other destinations are expected to be affected, including the UK and Canada, due to the closure of VFS Global’s offices, which handle visa processing on behalf of governments. The company reopened its UK visa application centres in Bangladesh on 18 August and was in the process of rescheduling cancelled interviews, according to its website.

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com