Hwei, in the meantime, has been mulling his options should he need to postpone for a year.

“One of the plans I am taking quite seriously is the idea of starting a youth magazine together with a friend supposed to enroll in Yale this fall,” Hwei wrote.

A Term in London

Ahmed El-Gaili ’98, originally of Sudan, is waiting in London for his visa so he can join his Law School class and graduate this year.

El-Gaili said a Sudanese passport has always meant he can get only short-term visas into the U.S—but it used to take less than a week to obtain one.

“That was the world before Sept. 11,” El-Gaili said.

When the embassy requested an interview in mid-August, El-Gaili said he realized his term was in trouble.

He e-mailed HLS Dean of Students Suzanne Richardson to let her know about his situation, he said, and he credits her with helping make his term possible.

He has received permission to enroll as late as Sept. 30, and meanwhile he’s trying to enroll in a British law school. He said HLS officials have told him he will receive credit for his work abroad so he can graduate with his class in June.

Now he just has to find a law school which will accept an application mere weeks before most English law schools start—and after contacting every college of Oxford and Cambridge and many other schools, he has just one prospect, he said.

El-Gaili had a job offer from the New York law firm where he spent his summer, Sullivan and Cromwell, but due to the difficulties he’s faced in getting a visa, he’s considering working in London instead.

“It’s definitely not the same U.S. I came to nine years ago—not the same open welcoming society, at least to people from my part of the world,” El-Gaili said.

For the Future

On Friday, several student groups sent a letter to University President Lawrence H. Summers, urging the former treasury secretary to personally lobby for the stranded students.

Harvard has been pushing on behalf of these three and other students in a similar bind, according to Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone.