First of all I should thank you because of your highly motivated attempts for the reunion. I hoped that you could have a pleasant rest after the reunion but it seems that new problem does not allow you to rest at least for a few weeks

Anyway, this is the report of my travel to US:

I was travelling with my wife . I had another invitation letter from ISSAT to present a paper in a scientific conference. According to what happened to my visa, it could be interesting that I am doing my PhD in association with Bell Labs group in US!!

Our flight was from Shannon airport in Ireland southwest. We were travelling by Delta 112 on 2nd of August. We arrived the airport around 9:00. At the first desk a lady checked our passports and Visas. After 2-3 minutes she told us that her computer had a problem (!!) and she should check our passport somewhere else!! We saw that she talked to two other men who later came and checked our luggage. I had a clear-book with myself including all our invitation letters, flight bookings and hotel reservation documents. While one of those two men was checking our luggage, the other one was writing the number of all our flights. They finished their checking, thanked us and carried our luggage to the counter desk and almost leaved us. When the lady at counter desk put our luggage on the conveyor, they suddenly returned, turned off the conveyor very quickly and took the luggage with themselves (!!!). I believe that I could understand the reason later at NYC airport.

As you probably know, the American Border Protection Guards attend and do the last checks at Shannon airport. Before entering the transit hall, an American policeman asked us to wait in front of a room for his colleague to do some other checks. A few minutes later a policewoman came and asked us to follow her in to the small room. She took photos from both of us and asked us for fingerprinting. She also asked us about the purpose of travelling, and some of our specifications like eye colour, etc. I explained her that because I am so busy about my project I cannot probably go to Iran very soon to change my passport and because of the nature of my PhD project I have to travel too many times so I need every single page of my passport. Then I asked her very very politely to stamp our passport exactly on the visas not on the next page. But she shouted me angrily that: "this is an one entry visa, so this is the rule" (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and stamped it somehow that just a small corner of the stamp was on the Visa and the rest of it was on the next clear page. I did not understand about that strange rule at that moment but as I understood it later on NYC airport, I will explain you why that was the rule for one entry Visas!!!

Almost 7 hours later, at NYC airport, two policemen were waiting for us exactly in front of the airplane exit (!!!). They took us to their office and they told us that our Visas were not good! They asked us just for our luggage registration number at Shannon airport counter desk, (and nothing about the luggage specifications), and then they found them very quickly!!! (Now, I am sure that you can understand, as I have understood, that why our luggage were taken from the conveyor at Shannon Airport and carried separately!!!). A young policeman told me that our Visa have been revoked by the Department of State. He also told us that because of the low number of Iranian applicants in American embassy in Dublin, they did not know about all necessary checks for us !!! and they issued our Visa not based on complete information, and they are responsible for that. I explained him that our Visa was ready on June 23rd and they had enough time to revoke it or ask us for more information, but he replied that this was the embassy fault. Later on, while he was filling a form, asked me to take oath to tell the truth. Then he asked me about the purpose of the trip, previous applications for immigrant or non-immigrant Visa, amount of money in our pocket, if my wife is pregnant or not, and if anybody is waiting to kill us in Ireland when we return or not!!!! Then he told me that there were two ways, to be deported by force and not to be allowed to apply for 5 years or to withdraw the application voluntarily. Clearly, we chose the second one. The policeman told me that by law I was allowed to call to Iranian embassy in US!!!! I asked him to call the embassy of Switzerland, which is the diplomatic intermediate between Iran and US governments, but he did not accept it. They asked me for our return ticket to send us back by our own booked flight to be paid from my pocket, but fortunately our return flight was from LA. They told us that there is a flight to Shannon via Dublin and we have to return to Shannon. I tried to convince them that if you say this is the fault of American embassy in Dublin, I want to go there tomorrow morning so I want to leave the plane at Dublin airport but they told us that you have to go to the origin airport. I tried to explain them that by law you can send me to the origin country not the origin airport particularly when the first one is cheaper for you and better for me but they did not accept it.

They also checked our luggage again and after doing fingerprint for both of us, asked us to follow two other policemen to the transit hall. While every body at the airport was looking us carefully and suspiciously, they ordered us to follow them to shopping area, because they wanted to buy ice cream and fruit juice!!!! Two hours later the delayed flight was ready, they took us to the plane and gave our passport to the flight hostess and told us she would give it to me 10 minutes after departure, but she did not do that earlier than the time that the plane landed in Dublin and of course they did not let us to leave the plane there. We went to Shannon and again retuned to Dublin by Bus!!

When we had a chance to have a look to our passport we found that our Visas were fully covered by red "cancel" and "application withdrawn" stamps. So we understood the reason of the strange rule that the policewoman had obeyed it to stamp our Visas at Shannon airport. The rule probably says that the first stamp should not be covered by the next possible stamps!!!!

Next morning at the American embassy all embassy employers who heard about our story got very sad about it. The Visa consul told us that they have done all necessary checks and we had no problem. He asked us to return at 3:00 and let him to contact to Washington during these hours. When we returned at 3:00 he told me that his colleagues in Washington had no reason to revoke our Visa and he sympathised with us.

Two days later I called Dr. Iraj Naserian who is a legal advise in CA and explained him the story. He had just heard some things about the story when I called him. He asked me for my Tel number to call me back later. He told me that he would try to do something because he feels a deep sympathy with SUT as he had previously had some cooperation with SUT, a long time ago, of course.