Three months after I was selected for a professional Fulbright fellowship associated with a top public health school in the United States, my local U.S. embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, received the paperwork to process my visa. I had given notice at work that I would be unavailable for a whole year. Given that I was being sponsored by the U.S. Department of State for the program, I was shocked to learn that several fellows in the past had missed out on parts or all of the fellowship due to “administrative processing,” and that my visa wasn’t a sure bet. I had only a few weeks until the program started in August 2022.
I ended up making it to the United States without trouble but an Egyptian fellow from my cohort was not so lucky. By the time she received a visa and traveled to the U.S., she had been delayed by one month, which resulted in several missed conferences, workshops, and courses. According to her, this was not a “huge setback” because it is common for many Ph.D. students and research fellows to wait three to six months due to the administrative processing.
Another fellow from one of my neighboring countries had to travel to a third country to apply for a visa since the embassy is not located in his home country. He received no reimbursement for the costs of that flight and hotel stay.