Get Dima back to Boston

Ever thought about buying your way into America? Well, according to President Donald Trump, all you need is a casual $5 million, and voilà - you’re golden (literally, with a ‘Golden Card’ which grants an individual privileges of a Green Card holder if invested in the US economy). Unfortunately, my budget is about $4,999,980 short, so here I am, launching the most ridiculous GoFundMe campaign you’ve probably seen today.

I wouldn’t be doing this if my situation wasn’t equally absurd. If you’ve ever wanted a front-row seat to the bureaucratic nightmare that is the U.S. immigration system, buckle up—because my story is part tragic, part comedy, and entirely maddening.

My name is Dima (short for Dmitry), and I made the unfortunate mistake of being born with the wrong passport while also being ambitious.

I was born in Russia back in 1992 but moved to Germany at the age of 6. Growing up in Germany I had to learn a new language and adapt to the local culture. I was always told by my mother that if I want to succeed as a stranger, I must work harder than my peers…which is what I did. I finished high school as the 2nd best student of my year and collected some awards along the way. I believed that this would set me up for a pretty successful life, if only there was not my stupid Russian passport.

My high school diploma allowed me to be admitted at Heidelberg University (Germany) to study physics. I finished my Master of Science (MSc) degree with a top score. During that time, I had the privilege to study abroad at the prestigious University College London (UCL) and work on my final thesis at the renowned European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Moreover, I volunteered at a refugee camp and taught dance classes at the local youth club.

Life and career seemed to be in line even though I had to face some minor challenges as a Russian citizen e.g., to be admitted at UCL I had to apply for a visa, show proof of sufficient financial coverage (one strange condition was that fund on my bank account must not be below 8000 EUR for 90 days) and pass an English test. Many international students have to go through this procedure, so I am not considering this being a huge deal. However, at that time, it was something new to me.

2017 was the year I discovered that having a Russian passport is the bureaucratic equivalent of carrying a cursed artifact—it makes everything harder and no one wants to touch it.

Unsure if I preferred a career in academia or industry after obtaining my MSc degree, I decided to explore the latter option as an intern at Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc. in Dublin, California.

However, my entry to the holy land of America came with some obstacles.

With the help of my visa sponsor ZEISS, I applied for a J-1 visa at the US embassy in Frankfurt. During my visit in the US consulate, I was very calm as I had all my supporting documents with me and had been thoroughly briefed by my travel agency about the visa issuing procedure before making an appointment.

However, it did not help, and, for the first time, I was made aware that my background is different from my German peers who applied for similar, if not same, type of visas (despite having lived for more than 20 years in Germany). I received a pink letter informing me that my application needs to undergo the administrative processing stage (which is basically embassy-speak for ‘background check’). Knowing that I am just a normal guy exploring lifes opportunities it felt kind of cool being background checked as I felt like one of those villians in action movies who hide their identities to commit some spectacular crime. I knew that things should be alright for me as according to my travel agency getting into this stage can be normal and should take anywhere between 1-4 weeks. However, in my case it took 6 weeks. That was my first jackpot in the citizenship-ass-kick lottery. Of course, this disrupted my entire planning and caused some financial damage (e.g., paying an extra month of rent for an unoccupied apartment in California + missing paychecks that would have helped me to get settled). Luckily, my employer ZEISS was very accommodating and re-arranged the starting date of my stay.

I had a fantastic time exploring California and its surroundings. I also published my work in peer-reviewed journals and presented my results at the ARVO conference on Hawaii (this is where I also met my scientific heroes from Harvard University and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine). Overall, it has been a very enriching and successful experience.

However, as I was nearing the end of my internship, I re-adjusted my future and decided to return to academia. While spending 6 months in Slovenia and working as a visiting scientist at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia I started applying to graduate research programs in the United States (I tackled the East Coast given that my first US experience covered the West Coast).

Being now a fully fleshed scientist, I applied to my dream institution – the Wellman Center for Photomedicine (part of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School), a world leading institute within my field of interest ‘Biomedical Optics’.

It seemed that all stars aligned when in 2019 I was offered a PhD project/research technologist position within the research group of Dr. Charles Lin. I did not hesitate to accept and was ready to prepare for what will become my most intense period of my life.

As I have gone through the US visa application process before, I knew what was ahead of me and so I warned my future employer about potential delays and the possibility of being thrown into the administrative processing loop one more time. And without any surprise, I got background checked again (or as they say ‘administrative processing’). This time it took the embassy 8 weeks. Again, as part of being a Russian scientist I sacrificed two rent payments (I had to organize accommodation prior applying for the visa) and missed two paychecks.

Anyways, while in Boston I have met and become friends with the most inspiring people I can imagine. I had the opportunity to work with the brightest people, take leadership on international and impactful projects and was part of building up the greatest dance community in the world (The Flavour Continues! Check them out. These guys are awesome!).

In short, I really felt that I found a home in Massachusetts.

As a result, my supervisor and I agreed after 3 years of my stay that we would like to extend my expiring visa.

That brings me finally to the meat of the story.

On September 12th, 2023, after having spent 4 years in the US without having visited my family in Germany in a long time I went to Berlin to apply for my visa extension at the US embassy. (For whatever unknown reason, you cannot apply for a visa stamp from within the US territory. So, if you need your visa extended, you must leave US soil, go to a US embassy to get it done and then return back to the US. Can’t have nice things.)

At this point I was a seasoned US visa applicant and since I just arrived in Germany only two days before my interview with the consulate, I was confident this visit would be a short one.

And, oh boy, short it was.

As I was standing in line for my visa interview, I was witnessing how a Russian speaking couple got their visa application rejected. The woman of the couple wanted to attend her sister’s wedding but the officer at the window seemed to have some doubts. They received the pink sheet indicating they would undergo the administrative processing stage as I have done before.

When it was my turn, I greeted the officer friendly and handed him over all my supporting documents which he did not seem to bother about. I was asked the same usual questions ‘What do you do in the US?’, ‘Who is your employer?’ and ‘Where do you work?’. While I was responding responsibly, the officer has already been reaching out for the pink sheet without even listening to my words.

Here we go again, another pink sheet that put me in my administrative processing cycle. I asked the officer friendly if something was wrong with my application and what timeframe I had to expect until I hear back from the embassy. I was told I should check in again in about 30 days which seemed reasonable, given my past experience have been waiting times of ~8 weeks.

Additionally, my pink sheet asked me to submit digitally some documents like my list of publications, CV, travel plans, description of my reasearch etc.

Spoiler, I HAD ALL THOSE DOCUMENTS ALREADY WITH ME BUT NO ONE CARED TO ASK FOR THEM. Arghhh…

Anyways, being a responsible visa applicant, I scanned and submitted all requested documents within a day or so and this is when the journey really started.

Around 30 days in, I requested an update of my case and was informed that the administrative processing has not been completed and that I would be contacted once a decision would be made. To not upset the person working on my application I waited another two weeks before asking for another update, but I my request remained unaddressed. I sent another request after 65 days but received a pre-scripted reply. This will become a repeating pattern of my communication with the embassy.

My supervisor tried to facilitate my return to Boston by providing me with an urgency letter highlighting the importance of my presence in the United States which I attached in my following status request. You do not have to make wild guesses about the embassy’s reaction – a pre-scripted text.

As weeks went by, I submitted countless requests about the state of my application, tried to call in to figure out what was going on and even submitted a privacy release forms to Congress representatives in Boston to ask for help (remained unanswered).

Whatever I tried, I would either not receive any response from the embassy or being thrown a bone in the form of a pre-scripted message. (At some point, they even started sending me copy-paste replies in both English and German, just to make sure I didn’t misunderstand their lack of interest in my case.)

During my phone call attempts I was referred by the operator to the website of the embassy whose content at some point I knew inside out. They did not even bother to listen to my concern and consequently showed no interest in helping me. Instead, their communication sounded as pre-scripted as their e-mail messages: ‘You can find all the information about our visa services on our website. Please, refer to the online forms for more questions. Have a great day!’

They even ignored my fact that more than half of my online requests have not been replied to.

I have so many questions about the purpose of this phone line.

On one occasion I managed to speak to an operator for longer than 2 minutes. While I was excited to have finally someone listening to my case I was quickly put into shock by a borderline statement of my interlocutor:

‘No one asked you to apply to the US. You could have chosen a different place to study.’

I will let this statement sink in.

(Just a reminder, I was not applying for a new visa. I was filing for an extension if my status which has already been approved by the Department of Homeland Security. All I needed was a visa stamp in my passport.)

After 202 days post visa interview, a new promising opportunity arose through the help of my #1 roommate in Boston. I managed to get hold of Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. Her office undertook multiple attempts to push my case forward, but the embassy has been reluctant to provide more insights about the reason for the long administrative process.

My supervisor and I decided to go a step further and managed to contact the office of honorary Senator Edward Markey through a lawyer after 420 days post interview. Luckily, the office of Senator Markey showed empathy with my situation and requested an update from the US embassy in Berlin on my behalf directly.

The embassy’s response to the Senators office was: ‘We reviewed our consular records and found that Mr. Rikhter’s case is pending the completion of administrative processing in order to verify his qualification for this visa.’

I am not kidding!

Seriously, 440 days and you guys are still verifying the qualification for my visa?!?!

Look, Elon, if you are searching for areas to make government work more efficient, I have a hot candidate for you. (If you actually think about it, it’s not just a waste of money from the governments perspective but also a waste of scientific progress. While being stuck in Germany, projects have been put on hold reducing the overall output. Someone, please explain to me how this makes any sense!)

During this entire period, I made a lot of sacrifices (and I am just scratching only the surface here) while still resiliently maintaining hope every single day that I will get my visa and can return to Boston. I have never felt the myth of the Greek king Sisyphus to be so fitting to my life than now.

To this day I am counting 535 days (date 02/28/2025) of being stuck in the administrative process.

Not a single attempt has led to a change of my situation.

And as you can see, I have not left a single stone unturned.

At this point, I’ve spent so much time dealing with embassy bureaucracy that I’m expecting a LinkedIn endorsement for ‘Expert in Navigating U.S. Visa Black Holes.’

Sadly, because of this situation I missed out on some amazing opportunities which I have been setting myself up for before getting into this mess.

For instance, I applied to the Siegman Summer School, an OPTICA workshop hosted by Stanford University with a limited pool of accepted participants (100 slots worldwide). I managed to secure a slot but could not attend due to, you guessed it, visa issues. Even the workshop organizers tried to accommodate by extending my registration deadline which, frustratingly, I had to let slide.

Moreover, I was shortlisted for an onsite interview with the life science consulting firm Charles River Associates which, again, I had to cancel due to my absence from Boston. I missed out on a couple of great conferences (which I have been explicitly invited to) and opportunities for collaboration.

Some of my research projects had to be postponed, cancelled, or assigned to other lab members.

I missed the wedding ceremonies of some of my closest friends, missed the infamous SHAOLYNN dance cypher (and many more amazing dance events), missed some farewells, some welcomes, some promotions/graduations. I wish I would have hosted some more parties for my community such as those we used to have at Atherton Street e.g. Halloween, Friendsgiving, Christmas, Paint nights, … .

All this because of my Russian background (ignoring that that I have lived for more than 20 years in Germany) and my inherent interest in science. Being boiled down to academic background and citizenship rubs me the wrong way.

I really thought we have gotten further as a society.

So here’s the deal: I don’t expect to actually raise $5M (though, wouldn’t that be a plot twist?), but I do need help funding a mandamus lawsuit—one of the few legal tools available to force the embassy to finally make a decision. Even if the answer is no, at least I’ll finally know. And if we don’t reach that goal? I’ll settle for a Harvard hoodie (something I have never managed to get myself while in Boston) and an IPA to toast my fate (they say US beer is crap but I love American IPA). Either way, you’ll be helping me prove that bureaucratic nightmares can’t keep us down forever.

The whole point is to raise awareness of the many people who have been fallen victims to a process that works merely like a black box, in which they have no choice but to endure this unbearable uncertainty.

Finally, there is no way my words can do justice to express the sheer amount of pain I have been experiencing throughout these past 500+ days. Every fiber of my body is left in disbelief about this visa issuing process and the Kafkaesque situation I found myself in.

To all the people who have been there for me during the past 500+ days, I am indebted to eternal gratitude.

To anyone out there battling bureaucracy with nothing but hope and an internet connection—you're not alone. And if we can’t beat the system, at least we can laugh at it together.

Thank you for taking the time reading my story!

Dima