BY AN ANONYMOUS IRANIAN STUDENT
On June 4, 2025, the Trump administration issued a proclamation that restricts or denies entry to the United States of foreign nationals from a list of specific countries, including Iran. In the weeks since then, the AAUP has received numerous emails from current and prospective students affected by the travel ban. Below we share the testimony of one of these students, who has chosen to remain anonymous. Read the AAUP statement “Trump’s Travel Ban Is Discriminatory.”
As a citizen of Iran admitted to the PhD program in civil and environmental engineering at Texas Tech University, I am writing to share how the Trump administration’s recent travel ban and visa restrictions have deeply disrupted my life and future.
To pursue my academic goals, I have made significant sacrifices. I spent considerable time and money on language proficiency tests, application fees for multiple universities, Student and Exchange Visitor Information System fees, and travel costs to a third country for my visa interview because there is no US embassy in Iran.
I received self-funded admissions to Michigan Tech University and Temple University in the field of civil and environmental engineering for the fall of 2024 and partial funding from Clarkson University. In addition, I received full funding from George Mason University, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Texas Tech University for the fall of 2024. I also had several admissions from universities in the Netherlands, Finland, and Germany. In the end, I accepted the offer from Texas Tech because my research field and research interests were about 95 percent similar to those of a professor there. I paid about $1,200 in application fees, mostly for American universities, from 2023 to 2024, while my family’s monthly salary was only $300. My husband and I went through a lot of hardship and worked very hard to pay these fees. We have been married for seven years and spent all our life savings on applying for admission and US visas, and now we have been waiting for a visa for more than a year. The truth is that I have been working day and night for five years to write and publish journal articles and to improve my English and International English Language Testing System results, and I have been successful in those efforts. I also got a good score on the GRE exam.
It would be beyond my imagination and unbelievable for me to lose this opportunity because of the travel ban. I ask you to support us students who have worked with great motivation and determination and are now standing at this point in our lives.
My husband and I went to the US Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia, on June 18, 2024, for a student visa interview and have been in the administrative review process for over a year now, hoping to receive my visa and begin my studies on time. This has been a huge psychological and financial burden on us. Because our nationality is Iranian, we have been put through a long administrative process, and this has limited our life opportunities, despite the fact that I have been hardworking throughout my education and in achieving my academic goals. I have deferred my admission to Texas Tech University twice and there is no possibility of deferring a third time. My PhD project at Texas Tech was supposed to start in the fall of 2024. Unfortunately, since then the travel ban was imposed. This unfair policy has prevented me from pursuing the educational path I worked so hard for. Now, with a heavy heart, I am asking for help.
The right to education should not be denied because of one’s nationality. Iranian students have always been among the top performers at US universities. We have made meaningful contributions in science, technology, medicine, and many other fields and have never posed any threat to the United States. Iranian students and scholars are part of a long tradition of academic excellence and international collaboration. For decades, they have contributed meaningfully to US universities and scientific innovation, but now we are losing life opportunities.
I am grateful for the AAUP’s advocacy on behalf of international students. I hope that by sharing my story, I can contribute to the call for fairer and more inclusive policies that honor the principles of academic freedom and equal opportunity.
