The Joe Biden Administration took an initiative to facilitate the entry of Russian scientists into the US a couple of years ago. However, their arrival in the US has become difficult in recent times!
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Immediately after the invasion, nearly 9,000 Russian scientists condemned the attack through an open letter. As expected, the open letter irked the Vladimir Putin Administration and the Russian Police started detaining and torturing the physicists. Most of them were arrested on charges of sedition! At that period of time, the Biden Administration decided to stand by the Russian scientists, with the White House launching a special campaign to facilitate their entry into the US. However, the initiative did not get much success.
A Russian scientist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Deutsche Welle (DW) that he discussed the issue with teachers of some top US universities. They informed the scientist that the initiative of the US Government failed due to the opposition of the Republicans in the US Congress.
Mikhail Feigelman is a Physicist at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, located in the town of Chernogolovka near Moscow. He travelled to Poland in spring 2022, applied for a visa at the US Consulate in Warsaw, presenting an invitation from his daughter who was already living in the US. The concerned US authorities asked Feigelman to show some of his publications after receiving his application form. There was no problem in getting a visa after showing publication in the past. However, Feigelman did not receive the visa this time. "I was informed after seven months that my visa had been refused. I was told that I had not proven that I would leave the US in time," he said. The physicist told DW: "I had never been asked for proof of return to Russia."
There are more precedents of rejection of visa applications. As no one wants to talk about them openly, the actual number of visa applicants still remains unknown! One such Russian scientist, who wants to remain anonymous, has revealed a surprising fact! The young scientist reportedly accepted an invitation from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in Pasadena after completing his Graduation in Russia in the summer of 2022. He and his wife both applied for visas. The response came two years later. While his application had been rejected, his wife's application got approved!
After the invasion of Ukraine, the US and its Western allies imposed various sanctions on Russia. The sanctions applied to at least 200 Russian universities! This resulted in a higher number of rejections of visa applications. Forum Vinskogo, the Russian travel website, recently reported that the US was issuing visas for Russian scientists working for institutes involved with the military industry in 2018. However, more and more visa applications have been rejected since 2022, with Washington DC telling the applicants that their employers are subject to US sanctions.
As per data prepared by the US State Department, around 40% of visa applications from Russians were rejected in 2023, up from 26% in 2022. Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the figure oscillated between 15% and 17%. Meanwhile, some Russian physicists are of the opinion that the problems are not being caused deliberately, but because of the fact that the US authorities are overburdened.
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