I really do appreciate the United States government’s efforts in helping the developing countries, like my own country Ghana, solve some of their numerous economic and social problems. As far as I know, the federal government has done tremendously well, sending relief items such as clothes, food, medicine and so on to help many of the war-torn countries in Africa.

But my major concern now is about international education and the acquisition of student visas. The process that an international student has to go through to secure a visa to study in the United States is an ordeal. Surprisingly, the consular officers of American embassies put a lot of financial demands on students before they are issued visas.

 These visa issues eventually shatter the academic dreams and hopes of an ambitious African student who really wants to come over to the United States to study.

Moreover, as the saying goes, it is always better to teach someone how to fish than to give him fish to eat. These international students, I think, have a genuine aim to acquire knowledge from America to develop their countries. They are anxious to study and acquire all the necessary skills that made the America so developed, advanced and prosperous to enable them develop their countries too.

I personally encountered this student visa trouble last August, when I had expected to be enrolled at Elon University for the fall 2002 semester.  I went to the American Embassy in Accra-Ghana twice to apply for a visa, but I was turned down. 

Ironically, a story was then published about my visa issue on Sept. 26, 2002 in The Pendulum by Erin Cunningham. This article was titled "Student has visa trouble," which I found really interesting.

I’m quite sure that my case would not be an isolated case. There may be several students from Ghana and other developing countries who are still struggling to secure a visa to study in the United States.

 Strangely enough, Cunningham made reference to my case and the Sept. 11 incident by saying that it has worsened students’ abilities to acquire visas because some of the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center in New York legally acquired visas to study in the United States.

The Sept. 11 incident was a horrible experience for Americans and the entire world; it puts a greater responsibility on America to protect her people and territory. But I think this is a matter of victimization and generalization, which has practically nothing to do with me, a poor attend an accredited institution in the United States. Furthermore, I have no weapons, nor do I know anything about aviation to hijack an aircraft. 

 In view of all these troubles and confusions surrounding the acquisition of international student visas, I want to bring this urgent issue to the attention of all governmental agencies in America, the various American embassies back home in Africa, particularly in Accra-Ghana and the general public for thorough consideration so that my fellow ambitious students from developing countries such as Ghana can easily secure visas to study in the United States, to enable them achieve their academic goals as well as to help develop the rather deplorable state of their economies.