But finding an effective answer will be difficult, he says.

“It’s very high on our agenda, but it’s something that’s going to take time and a lot of effort,” he says.

Africa and Back Again

With a last-minute application and help from one of his professor’s acquaintances, el-Gaili secured a spot at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.

While still hoping his U.S. visa would arrive in time for the extended Harvard deadline of Sept. 30, el-Gaili enrolled at London University.

He had received his British visa while working for Sullivan and Cromwell, but he would need a different, student-class visa if he were to study in London.

This, too, proved a challenge.

The British Home Office told him that he could only get a student visa at a British embassy outside the country.

“It was getting comical at that point,” he says.

So after nine years of living in the United States, he returned for a week to Sudan to obtain a British visa.

Though el-Gaili spent most of the week at the British embassy, he found time to meet with his Sudanese family and friends again.

Although many were sympathetic to his trying experiences, some suggested that trusting the United States too blindly had made him responsible for his situation.

“To them, I’m very pro-American and too liberal for most Sudanese,” he says, explaining that many of the country’s residents are slightly wary of the U.S. in general.

El-Gaili returned to Britain with his visa and—living out of a hotel—began classes in London.

He deluged the U.S. consulate with a frenzied stream of correspondence as Sept. 30 approached.