The Magic of Chen

Ross MBA

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The reason is

Why my fingerprints were taken once and ridiculously a second time?

The reason is...the Almighty plans for this...

FIL is in hostipal and I have been visiting the hospital much more often than Ross' homepage. The transplantation of the stem cell was well completed, and all the family members are looking forward to the news of new stem cell growing and malign cells dying.

The venture I partially owned is not performing very well and face difficulties in cash flow. We're thinking of bringing in new investors. I will be meeting with other two shareholders to discuss the financing plan this weekend.

Yet, I'm still keeping fresh and keeping cool.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Threat vs. Me

Well, I did search other blogs about the Visa & Fingerprinting check and found a hot article by BBC reporting such a case for a Muslim student.


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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4938760.stm
Muslim 'must pay for visa checks'

Mr Khan was told "a lot of bad people" share his nameA Muslim student had to pay extra for security checks when applying for a visa to visit the United States, because his name was Mohammed.
Mohammed Umar Haleem Khan, 22, was told by US Embassy officials that "a lot of bad people" shared his name.
The Manchester Metropolitan University student had to pay an extra $80 (£45) to have his fingerprints checked against a US terror suspect database.
An embassy spokesman said it could not say how visa applications are assessed.
"We do have expedited procedures for exchange visitors and students that should allow us to process the visa before the travel date," he said.
I was totally speechless. I didn't know what to say
Mohammed Khan"In general, there are any number of reasons why one visa application may be different than another or take longer to process.
"The important point I must make is that if someone needs a visa, they should apply well in advance of the travel date."
Mr Khan was planning to work for the Camp America project in Philadelphia.
He said: "She asked me all the usual questions like what was my purpose for visiting and what was the nature of my job and then she said there was a problem with my name.
"She said there were a lot of bad people in the world with that name, meaning terrorists.

The student was forced to pay about £45 for fingerprint checks"Then she told me I would have to have some additional security checks, which meant all my fingers were fingerprinted and she told me these would be compared to a database in Washington. I had to pay an extra 80 dollars.
"I was totally speechless. I didn't know what to say to her.
"Now I am worried I may not get a visa and travel to the States because of my name.
"I'm sure that if some white candidate came along there would have been no problem."
Mr Khan added that he had never visited Afghanistan or any other trouble hotspots and could think of no reason why his name would cause a problem.
A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain Inayat Bunglawala said: "This is a worrying incident and seems to fit a recent pattern whereby the USA appears to be treating all Muslims as potential terrorists just because of their religion.
"Although Muslim parents name their children from a wide variety of names - just like other parents - many of them, especially those from the Indian subcontinent, will often give their male children the name of Muhammad as a kind of respectful prefix in honour of the Prophet, even though the actual name by which these children are known will be something else.
"US Embassy officials ought really to have had the training to cope with basic elements of Muslim culture which would help prevent these kinds of unfortunate situations."
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Monday, August 21, 2006

Hot Cool

While the school has been sending all the events and activities, I could do nothing but sitting at my cubic wondering when on earth that damned Consulate girl will call me up about my fingerprints and Visa.

My classmates in my section is organizing networking activities; International center is reminding internatinoal students to check in their SEVIS before the deadline of August 31st; RSB is welcoming the class of 2008; Leadship program is going to be full blown tomorrow...

Actually I have something else to do besides waiting; I need to call RSB, who is supposed to courier an explanation letter to me last week. So far, I have sent two email to them but got no response. Maybe they are just too busy these days with all the new faces and the returning MBA 2. Anyway, I think I should call them tonight.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

It's hard to keep patient for 50 days

Maybe I'm the most unfortunate among the unfortunate --- I'm not getting my Visa yet, not because the Consulate rejected it, but because FBI requested me to be fingerprinted again on August 2. I asked the Consuldate girl who helped me on the fingerprinting for a favor to prioritize my case as the unclearance was controlled by the Consulate not by me. She is kind enough to tell me that relevant responsbile people in the Consulate section will write to FBI to expedite my case after I insisted several times before I stepped out their room.

I did ask for their contact so that I can call them to have updates. But the response from them is quite straight forward: Do NOT contact us; we'll contact you! Quite Cool, eh?!

So the waiting has been lasting from July 5th till now and will continue to maybe next week and the week after even. I cancelled my flight after confirming with United Airlines. I will now almost miss the Ross Leadership Program starting at August 23. I wrote to Ross asking their help. The school will allow me to check in as late as September 5 but no later. At the same time, Ross doesn't specifi what will happen to my matriculation if I missed the deadline.

To make things worse, UK just had a terrorism plot,though foiled, comparable to 911. FBI will be now focusing on checking all the gel, lotion and milk at all the immigration ports.

I'm quite optimistic about my Visa as always; but it's hard to keep my patience after 50 days waiting. What's the next page that God plans for me on my book of life?