My bachelor and master degrees are all obtained from one of the Chinese elite universities, where I majored in medical engineering. Combining my field with computer science will efficiently lessen the diagnosis burden of doctors and achieve the mission of precision medicine, which will bring countless healthcare interests to the whole human beings. I know this and regard it as my ultimate goal, thus I switched my major to computer science, planning to do intersciplinary research with a computer science professor as my advisor.

Due to the major change, many professors were unwilling to take me as their students. Fortunately, thanks to the openness and respect for intelligence of US institutions, I finally got a PhD offer in a US university with a fully-funded scholarship. I had the feeling that my dream was coming true because of my persistence and diligence. Being in the US also means getting together with my long-departed girlfriend who has already been doing her master degree in the US, and we will be in the same city if things go well.

However, the visa refusal letter under pp 10043 from the visa interview window torn apart all my dreams, academic pursuits, and life expectations completely.

In the beginning of 2021, I chose to travel to Singapore to do US visa interview because the US embassies in China were closed due to COVID-19. I believed I am irrelevant to the Military Civil Fusion Strategy after I read its definition. My previous research projects are irrelevant to MCF and I have two episodes of travel experience to the US before. Thus, innocently believing that the visa officer will comprehensively review applicants’ background and make a well-informed and reasonable decision, I confidently stood in the front of the visa officer.

On the interview day, everything went well at the start. He said he understood transforming major to computer science is typical. Knowing my program is fully funded by a US university, he nodded and suggested me not to forget to do the COVID-19 testings before flying to the US.

However, all of a sudden, he frowned and pointed his fingers at the screen, and asked: “where did you finish your undergraduate studies?” I frankly answered. He kept silent for a while, then refused to take any other of my materials, and went straight to the shelf behind, pulling out a visa refusal letter marked with reason “PP10043”.

My brain went absolutely blank, unable to accept the fact that I was refused simply due to having studied in a particular university.

Now, I have already been taking online-courses offered by the US University for almost one year. Though breaking the circadian rhythms due to huge time differences made me exhausted, I achieved A in all of them. It is too hard to give up this program with a generous scholarship, matching research directions, and the opportunities of paving my career as well as gathering with my dearest girl friend. I cannot imagine how I could go forward if PP10043 will remain in effect to ruin my life and the lives of people same to me.

I was an undergraduate student at Beihang University and graduated in 2018. For a long time, I have had a favorable impression of the US since junior high school. After all, the US has its one-of-the-kind education system excelling around the world. For this reason, I have long decided to further my study in the US. Since the junior year, I began to participate in summer research programs for grad school applications. I had wonderful experiences at the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington. After I graduated from Beihang, I studied Quantum Computation at the University of Southern California for my master’s program. It seems natural to me to continue my Ph.D. program at USC.

The first one and the half years in USC were rewarding and joyful. Since I had not gone back to China, in Jan. 2020, I went back to China and visited my folks. I had planned to do an intern job in China for a half year and then go back to USC in 2020 Fall. However, I didn’t expect that everything was messed up by a sudden disaster …

The first thing is the COVID-19 pandemic. My hometown Hubei Province, the main epidemic area, adopted a strict policy of stay-home quarantine. After two months of staying home, I found myself undergoing a depressive state and gaining more than 22 pounds. With the virus spreading to the whole world, I found the US has adopted an increasingly negative method towards the pandemic. In April or May 2020, Mr. Trump decided his strategic direction for his presidential election—targeting China as its enemy. It was against this background that President Proclamation 10043 came into effect.

In September 2021, my five-year F-1 visa for the former’s master program in 2018 was revoked. What’s worse is that students from certain Universities and other institutions repeatedly got rejected for their visas. I found myself on the verge of breaking down so much that I wanted to cry everyday morning when I got up. I comforted myself, maybe Chinese students will be welcomed if Mr. Joe Biden gets elected.

From the beginning of the President Election in November, I kept myself updated about the voting number of two candidates every day. I got ecstatic whenever I saw the swing states change from red to blue. It seemed to me that as long as Biden wins the election, I can be welcomed into the US, and we could go back to the days when students got their J and F visas successfully.

Things didn’t pan out well as I expected. Mr. Biden’s new government overthrew many policies, only except for the ones concerning the sino-us policies. In April, I headed to Singapore for an F-1 visa, only to get rejected under PP. 10043. I asked my school for help, and there was no practical answer. I guess it may be the end of my education path in the US. I felt so sad. It is not because of anything wrong that I have done but of the school I previously studied. What a ridiculous and helpless fact! It becomes an incredible Odyssey to revoke President Proclamation 10043 through exhausting our efforts. Tiny dust of the times, falling on one’s shoulder, turns out to be a giant mountain.

In Feb. 2020, I received a Ph.D. offer in Physics from a US institution. However, the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the President Proclamation 10043 (PP. 10043) blocked Chinese student visas and forced me to study remotely in China, where there is 12 hours’ difference from the US. From then on, I spent my entire year in sleep-wake inversion.

Not a single day in this year have I spent in a normal way. Days and nights completely inversed. Social interaction entirely deprived. Endless worries of getting a valid visa haunted me even when I was heavily burdened by academic tasks. I was also mentally afflicted in many desperate nights by constant anger, sadness, and anxiety.

As a mere innocent student, I don’t think I deserve to be ill-treated by the PP.10043 just because I have studied in one of the universities on the list. I kept paying attention to people like me who have also been rejected for visas on no grounds by unfair PP.10043. It blocks academic freedom, erodes educational exchanges, and hurtfully prevents countless innocent and hardworking students from pursuing their academic goals. In this case, I sincerely hope that PP 10043 could be revoked, and the pathway of academic exchange be restored.

I am a freelance artist. Previously, I studied English as my undergraduate major at a non-sensitive and then graduated from one of Chinese elite universities with a master’s degree in foreign linguistics and applied linguistics. Out of the sheer enthusiasm for character painting and designing, I signed up for a course in art concept and design for systematic training after my master’s graduation in Jan 2020. I have always dreamed of being an artist in the game and film industry. Finally, my portfolio was recognized by the admission committee, and I got admitted into the one of the art universities in US and would study 3D Game Character Development. It seemed that my dream was just within my reach. The program will last two years and requires no research nor publications. The only criterion for graduation is whether students can create excellent works. To my surprise, my visa application got rejected for the reason of 212f.

On the 14th May, the day of my visa interview, the visa officer asked for my information as a routine. He kept my resume and passport and told me my visa needs further administrative processing. On the afternoon of 17th May, the visa officer phoned me and informed me that my visa got rejected, and I may receive the same result even if I apply for an F2 visa. Since my husband studied in the U.S. and now working on OPT, it seems impossible for me to visit him in America. The COVID pandemics, coupled with the P.P. 10043, have taken us apart for nearly two years. As his undergrad school is also one of the targeted institutions, my husband didn’t dare to return to China and get together with our family. Under the impact of P.P. 10043, one of us can’t get a visa to enter America; the other one can’t take the risk of going back. Who knows when the next time that we couple could get together again is? What a wonderful life plan only to be destroyed by this P.P. 10043. It has had a serious impact on my career and my family. At this moment, I come to understand how a speck of dust from the era can feel like a mountain on the shoulder of a person.