Bring your visa, passport and I-20

Comfort Food from Home: Tapash Deb from Bangladesh has been studying in the USA since 2003.
Only twice did he visit back home.

Tapash – All the Way from Bangladesh

What U.S. students take for granted, turned into a struggle for Ohio University graduate student Tapash Deb: creating a bank account, getting a cell phone, and doing Optional Practical Training. Tapash came from Bangladesh to study chemistry in Athens but found that some goals are hard to meet and one is even unreachable for an international student.

This is part one of an ongoing series on the life of Ohio University graduate student Tapash Deb and other legal aliens in the USA.

280 applications. 10 interviews. But no company wanted him. Tapash held a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Chemistry, completed two internships at Illinois University and Ohio University, and had the necessary permit. Still, no one wanted to employ him for Optional Practical Training (OPT). He says, the answer was always the same: ‘You need to be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident before we can hire you.’ He says, 270 places did say blatantly that they do not hire international students at all. After waiting for six months,
Tapash moved on and became PhD student at Ohio University in Athens.

Troubles with getting a cell phone and a bank account
When Tapash wanted to buy a cell phone, the store wanted to check his credit card history. Since he does not have a credit card the alternative was to put down a security deposit: “After coming in as an international student, paying tuition fees and everything, suddenly I had to come up wit $500 dollar for the phone,’ he says. “That is just too much money to come up with.” Despite this obstable he managed to get a phone eventually.

Although he had no trouble opening a bank account in Indiana, creating a new account in Athens posed a problem. He says, the bank wanted him to prove ties to Athens county. After living in the USA for four years with a proper address in Indiana, he still felt “treated as a newcomer.“ The solution was a letter from the office for International Student and Faculty Service (ISFS), he says, “It was really a pain.”

“What is the purpose of coming to the USA, if people don’t mix?”
Ever since he came to the Athens’ campus he has noticed “segregation”. He says, Chinese stick to Chinese, Japanese to Japanese, Indians to Indians. And he wonders, what purpose it serves coming to the USA if people don’t mix. He says there is only one other student from Bangladesh with which he can team up: “I think the ISFS [Ohio University's International Student and Faculty Service] could do much more to organize events where students from all backgrounds can participate and do some activities and extend their knowledge.”

A similar view holds Ohio University undergraduate Xiaoli Stephan Wang from Hongkong: “As an international student in Athens I felt left out a little bit.” She started her own initiative modeled after a event series from home, the Global Café. In an informal setting with coffee and snacks, students introduce a geographical area, most often their home country: Great Britain, Japan, Somalia, Kap Verde, Hongkong, Ghana, and Guyana were already on the menu. The Baker Center 5th floor atrium provides an outlet for the educational gathering every other week on Thursday at 7 PM. The event is sponsored by the Wesley Student Center, the youth group of the First United Methodist Church of Athens. Upcoming nights feature Japan on May 8th and (East) Germany on May 22nd (latter will be presented by the author of this blog.)

What Tapash misses from home and his future prospects
Three things Tapash misses the most from his home country: family, “deep-hearted” hospitality, and friendliness: “When we go into a restaurant and someone doesn’t have any money, someone else will say ‘I’ll pay for you, don’t worry about it’. And the next time this person will pay out of courtesy.” Does his family miss him? “Oh yeah, I’m the only kid. They sent me for education so as long as I make progress, they are happy.”

He studies for about 35 hours per week for example working on models of enzymes for future environmental development. In addition, he is a teaching assistant for 15 hours per week, but he says, he works often more than 20. After graduating from Ohio University in 2011 or 2012, he says, he will go where research takes him: “If the USA thinks I’m eligible for doing more research and I can contribute something to the nation, sure I have no problem with that.” But he has also already applied at companies in Bangladesh.

Asked if he would consider switching his citizenship, he hesitates. He says, in order to work in the USA, he would need an H-1B visa. However, he says he learnt from past hassles with visa application, interviews, and travelling back and forth between his home country and USA. He says he might opt for entering the green card lottery and hope to be lucky.

Did you know?
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Yearbook of Immigration 2006 states that in 2003 13.914 nonimmigrants from Bangladesh were admitted to the United States.

How did you come to the USA? With which red tape did you have to deal as a legal alien? Are you on the path to U.S. citizenship? Please share your stories, questions, and comments!

Watch Tapash tell his story in his own word in one of the next posts on this blog.