#American student visa

[waitineedaname]

hello!! idk if you're from the US, but if that's where you're moving from, make sure you do EXTENSIVE research on the financial aspects of living abroad. there are a lot of really stupid (and sometimes nit-picky) rules that you'll have to take care to adhere to. also you'll still pay US taxes (the annual kind) even tho you're abroad :( Evan Edinger on youtube has some good videos that can serve as a jumping off point for expat financial topics.

if you aren't from the US then feel free to disregard this ofc lsdhfksdhgkdsgh good luck with the visa!!! i hope you enjoy canada :D

AUUUUGUHGHAGH TAXES. the bane of my existence. This is good advice, thank you! I've been so caught up just dealing with school stuff that I haven't even begun to think about taxes. Hopefully this is something the international department at my university can help with too

[usadvlottery]

Make well-informed decisions about your U.S. immigration journey by exploring the diverse visa categories available. This guide breaks down the essential details, guiding you through the intricacies of each visa type to ensure a successful and informed application process.

[miss-styles]

people who were born in canada/usa are literally not allowed to complain abt anything, ever.

[doux-amer]

Love finding out TODAY that I automatically had dual citizenship for life at and from birth except if I wanted to keep it, I had to formally file for it before I turned 22...so now I don’t have that and I don’t think I can be a dual citizen anymore. Even if it’s possible, there are probably so many hoops, and I wish I knew this back then even if I never used any of the privileges/rights associated with my Korean citizenship. No one told me about this and of course they wouldn’t because they wouldn’t have known themselves! 

[akippie]

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[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Mildred Harnack

Mildred “Mili” Harnack was a writer and academic from Wisconsin who moved to Berlin with her German husband in 1930. As Hitler rose to power, Mili created the largest resistance group in Nazi Germany and was targeted for execution by the Fuhrer himself.

Mili was born Mildred Fish in Milwaukee in 1902. Her father William was a teacher, and her mother Georgina was an activist for women’s suffrage. Mili had a natural facility with languages, and was fluent in German by the time she reached adulthood. Throughout her life, Mili loved German literature and culture. She attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she majored in English literature. Mili lived in a rooming house popular with writers, and worked as a film and drama critic for a local newspaper.

After receiving her BA, Mili went on to earn an MA in English in 1925. The next year she moved back to Milwaukee and worked as a lecturer at the Milwaukee State Normal School (now the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.) She met Arvid Harnack, a German economist and lawyer who was studying at the university on a Rockefeller fellowship. Arvid was from a prominent family of German intellectuals. After a whirlwind love affair, they were married in August 1926 at her brother’s farm. Arvid’s fellowship ended and he returned to Germany, followed by Mili the year later, after she completed a teaching session at Goucher College in Baltimore.

In Germany, Mili worked on her doctoral thesis and lectured at universities in German cities Jena and Giessen. The country was plunging deeper into political turmoil, and the Nazi party was rising to power amid the chaos. More than half of Mili’s students were outspoken Nazis. She moved to Berlin in 1930 to be with her husband, and began working as an assistant lecturer in English and American literature at the University of Berlin. Mili lectured about her favorite English and American writers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw. She was so popular with students that in just a year and a half, enrollment in the class tripled.

Mili connected with other American expatriates in Berlin and formed a literary salon where anti-Nazi academics and intellectuals could express themselves freely. By 1934, the Nazi secret police were everywhere and the salon was disbanded. Fellow ex-pat Martha Dodd, a close friend of Mili’s, later described her Berlin salon as “the last of the meager remnants of free thought.” Many of those who had participated in the salons continued to meet in the Harnacks’ living room but instead of discussing literature, they planned anti-Nazi political activism

Meanwhile, Mili achieved renown as a writer. She published essays in prominent German literary journals until the mid-30’s, when magazines started to print only “approved opinions” (in support of Hitler). She was able to continue working as a translator, and her German-language translation of Irving Stone’s biography of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life, was published in 1936.

Mili returned to the U.S. on a book tour in 1937, and her old friends were shocked at the drastic change in her personality. Earlier she had been friendly and easy-going, but four years living under Nazi rule made Mili anxious, stiff and guarded. She’d had to wear a metaphorical mask to survive in the totalitarian German state, and couldn’t shed the mask even when she left Europe. Mili’s family urged her to stay in the U.S. but she was determined to return to her husband and her political activism group, now called “The Circle.”

Mili’s unassuming manner combined with an extremely sharp intellect enabled her to penetrate the highest circles of German politics and diplomacy. She used these connections to get exit and travel visas for Jewish friends and colleagues, among them prominent publisher Max Tau. Mili also surreptitiously gleaned information from highly placed contacts, which she transmitted to fellow members of the resistance.

Mildred was fired from her teaching job at the University of Berlin because of her political beliefs, and she began teaching at night school, where her students were mostly working class or unemployed. She recruited many of them to join The Circle. The group published anti-Nazi leaflets, written by Mildred, and secretly left stacks of them in public places throughout the city.

German intelligence called them “the Red Orchestra” and falsely smeared them as communists working for the Soviets. Undeterred, the group increased their activities and cooperated with other resistance units. Around this time Mili wrote, “I saw it clearly before my eyes. From then on our work not only implies the risk of losing our freedom, from now on death was a possibility.” Led by Mili, The Circle became the largest resistance group in Nazi Germany. They incited civil disobedience against the Nazi regime, documented Nazi atrocities, and transmitted military intelligence to the Allies.

In the summer of 1942, the Nazis intercepted radio transmissions that revealed the identity of prominent resistance fighters including the Harnacks. On September 7, Mili and Arvid were arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned. Arvid was tried by the Reich Military Tribunal and sentenced to death on December 19. He was hanged three days later at Plotzensee Prison.

Mili languished in a squalid prison cell for months, where she was tortured and contracted tuberculosis. She went on trial and was sentenced to six years in prison. However, Hitler heard about the American woman who fought so effectively against his regime, and he ordered a new trial for Mili. The kangaroo court delivered a pre-determined death sentence, and at Hitler’s explicit request Mili was beheaded by guillotine on February 16, 1943. Her last words were, “And I have loved Germany so much!” After her execution, Mili’s body was given to an anatomy professor at Humboldt University to dissect for research. After he finished, he gave the rest of her remains to a friend of hers, who had Mili buried in Zehlendorf Cemetery in Berlin.

The only writing that survived from her time in prison were a few translated lines from Goethe: “In all the frequent troubles of our days/A God gave compensation – more his praise/In looking sky-and heavenward as duty/In sunshine and in virtue and in beauty.”

Mildred’s brave actions and tragic death have not been forgotten. In Berlin, a street and a school are named for her, and in her native Wisconsin schools observe Mildred Fish Harnack Day. The University of Wisconsin-Madison hosts an annual Mildred Fish-Harnack Human RIghts and Democracy Lecture, and a sculpture of Mili was unveiled in Madison in 2019.

For fighting Hitler at the cost of her own life, we honor Mildred Harnack as this week’s Thursday Hero.

Image: Gestapo mug shots of Mildred taken after her arrest in 1942.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Hello I was just wondering if you've seen Imani Barbarin talk about not voting (https://x.com/imani_barbarin/status/1747723080917492020?s=46&t=55h0eHrgY7FtQI8ej54maw)? I saw you reblog the post about "not waiting for the morally pure candidate" and I think that's a willful misrepresentation of what Gen Z is feeling

We've not seen Biden address ANY of the things the post claims (climate change is the only one I remember without scrolling back) but we have seen him approve more oil licenses than trump, drop more bombs than trump, support a genocide, abandon disabled people and any Covid mitigations during the second highest surge since the start of the pandemic (with less testing so odds are things r even worse than we can tell), bring back student debt, etc etc

As a Gen Z'r, I genuinely want to understand how y'all can believe "no vote is a vote for fascism" when both candidates are horrendous? Why is the onus on us and not the politicians to do better instead of pointing fingers and saying "at least we're better than Trump" when that is categorically untrue?

I'm sorry if this is too rant-y I'm just so furious and frustrated with my perception of older voters' complacency with being given utter shit instead of organizing for better

I am trying very hard to be reasoned and understanding about this- bearing in mind that we want the same things in the end and I'mnot jazzed for Biden either -when it's extremely, EXTREMELY obvious to me that Trump is worse.

Like.

If he gets elected there might not be another election. The man was theoretically willing to use military force to quell protests if he lost the 2020 election (why he didn't, I don't know; but I'm not willing to give him that chance a second time).

Trump has called himself a dictator, proudly, in the same breath as saying "we're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling." Biden does NOT remotely have a perfect record on either of those things- he was locked into some construction of the border wall by how the funds had already been allocated by Congress during the Trump administration, but not everything he's done in relation to it, which also pisses me off. As for the oil thing, it's a bit more complicated than it seems on the surface: not as simple as "he doesn't actually care about the environment" even as it's definitely not a good move or in line with his stated climate goals.

As for those climate goals, I found this interesting article that rates key areas of climate action and how they've fared during the Biden administration. It was updated in January, and it is not sycophantically uncritical across the board. But that is LEAGUES more progress than we'd get under a system of "drilling, drilling, drilling" with absolutely no concessions to the climate crisis at all.

His handling of the situation in Palestine...yeah, I struggle with that, too. I know he's been trying to talk their leaders down, to some degree, but it's not nearly enough to me. And I STRONGLY disagree with us selling them weapons. However, Trump's statements on the matter- calling for a ban on Gazan refugees in the US, calling pro-Palestinian protestors "barbarians," and saying he'd revoke the student visa of anyone he deemed "anti-American" -makes me believe that letting him get into power is not something my conscience would allow, vis a vis the fate of the Palestinian people. Because it would be exponentially worse.

I also think the material good that has happened under the Biden administration has been...MASSIVELY under-publicized. Because like. He HAS addressed things. Lots of things, in fact.

this article from last year was too early to include pardoning thousands of people federally convicted of simple marijuana possession (again, not perfect, but still very good), setting new rules to limit methane emissions, capping prices for at least some major insulin producers, partial student loan debt forgiveness (tried to do more, but got hamstrung by Republicans), cancelling oil leases granted by Trump in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (not enough given the leases HE granted, but it's not nothing either), and much more I'm sure I'm overlooking. Because, again, nobody's been talking about it. It sells more news subscriptions to feed readers an endless stream of what Biden is doing wrong- which I am not denying! -leaving people with the dangerous impression that both sides are the same. Republicans would not have done any of this. That's just the truth of the matter.

Look, I would like a better option, too. I would love to actually LIKE a presidential candidate in my lifetime. I'd love one who wouldn't make concessions to the interests of selfish, heartless people with ledgers where their sense of human compassion should be. I just don't see that person coming to power between now and November.

And I'll take someone who is Standard US Politician Slimy but at least makes some improvements (unfortunately, I doubt there's anyone with a chance of winning in less than a year who doesn't support Israel to some degree, since this country have a long history of that) over someone who might actually stage a right-wing military coup, and who would kill me and other marginalized people himself if he thought it would get him more fame and fortune.

Some people say their conscience won't let them vote Biden. I can't tell them what to do. But if he gets the Democratic nomination, my conscience wouldn't let me do anything else.

[jewishdragon]

So I’ve accidentally joined a LARP group

Yes accidentally

I joined a fan discord for Star Trek for students/staff/alumni at my university

Someone posted a link to another discord saying they watch Star Trek on Thursday!

They DIDNT mention they watch in the original format (meaning airing on TV with its original commercials at its original air time on Thursday nights) and PRETEND THEY ARE IN THE LATE 60s EARLY 70s! And you have to stay “in character” while watching

There’s even rules for if you’re in a other country you gotta state how and why you’re watching American TV and Visa versa for Americans tuning into watch shows that aired exclusively in other countries

[intheorangebedroom]

Pleased to meet you (a fairy tale)

Series, complete.

Summary: You meet Frankie Morales. Twice.

A 20-year-old French student, you're spending the summer of 1999 in New York with your best friend. When she drags you to a party in Brooklyn, you meet an aspiring pilot and the two of you spark an instant and intense connection. Separated by unfortunate events, you waste the next 15 years of your life longing for what you've lost, only to meet him again when your new boyfriend Benny introduces you to his best friend.

Pairing: Frankie Morales x Gabrielle Tourneur (OFC)/French fem!Reader with a dash of Ben Miller x Gabrielle Tourneur (OFC)/French fem!Reader

Written in reader format but Reader is an OFC. There are sparse but still present physical descriptions, she is French and has a thorough background, and a name.

Rating: Explicit 🔞

Note: In 2023, I will stop apologising. Maybe. And anyway, I make no excuse. I'm in love with this pilot and obsessed by this movie so I'm making it everyone’s problem. This story is nothing if not a self-indulgent exploration of the soulmates ideal. Expect a lot of angst, and smut.

Every chapter is explicit and you should be 18+ to read this. The American university system remains a mystery to me, I googled "how to become a US Army pilot", and visas are not a thing in this AU. English is not my first language, but one I adore.

Welcome to the orange bedroom, hope you'll enjoy 🧡

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Lovesong

Chapter 2 - I Feel You

Drabble (chapter 3) - What lingers (you)

Drabble (chapter 4) - What lingers (Frankie)

Chapter 5 - Boy meets girl

Drabble - Proud Mary (Ben Miller x you)

Chapter 6 - That Brooklyn bathroom

Chapter 7 - Frankie

Chapter 8 - Shuffle Your Feet

Chapter 9 - The Way Young Lovers Do

Chapter 10 - The Deal

Chapter 11 - Sunday Morning

Chapter 12 - The Drive Home

Chapter 13 - Perfect Day

Chapter 14 - Love is blindness

Chapter 15 - Flaming June

Chapter 16 - Plainsong

Chapter 17 - Auf Achse

Drabble - What lingers (you&him)

Epilogue - Songbird

Drabbles

Road Trippin’ - inspired by one of Wildemaven’s beautiful weekly moodboard writing prompts 🔞

The ties that bind us

To Bring You My Love

I <3 U SO - coming one day for sure

Headcannons

Frankie's high school locker

The TF boys' favourite things in life and how they like it done.

Benny and Gabrielle (better read between chapter 14 and 15 to avoid spoilers)

A PTMY Halloween 🎃

Playlist

[usadvlottery]

Embark on an educational journey with Student Visas in America, opening doors for international students to pursue academic excellence in the United States. This immigration category facilitates access to world-renowned universities and institutions, offering a diverse range of educational opportunities. Explore the stories of aspiring scholars navigating the student visa application process, from F1 visas for academic programs to Optional Practical Training (OPT) for post-graduation employment. Discover how these visas not only empower students to broaden their horizons academically but also contribute to the cultural richness and global perspectives within American campuses. Join the ranks of those who have embraced the transformative experience of studying in the USA, shaping a future filled with knowledge, growth, and endless possibilities.

[septembriseur]

Depressing political stuff

So this week I got a text from a refugee kid in the US who was like, “My brother who lives in France wants to come to my college graduation, and he paid $700 to apply for his family’s visitor visas, but there are no visa appointments until 2025 and they don’t know what to do.”

For Americans who might not know: this is actually extremely normal and common for people who require visas to enter the US. Good luck getting an appointment in the same year as your trip, even if you are applying through an embassy in Canada or Europe! Your best bet is to check the website every single day on the off chance that an earlier appointment date gets released. Otherwise, you’re just not going to your brother’s graduation/sister’s wedding/grandchild’s birth.

I think what has been weighing on me is that I was so frustrated with him for not doing the research before getting himself in this situation. If he had looked up any information, he would have known that this was the situation. And yet: why should he have known to look up the information? Nowhere in public do we acknowledge that this is the reality. If you watch films and TV, you would never know it. In his college classes, in his friends’ dorm rooms, this is not the reality, or if it is (as it actually almost certainly is for students who have family members in Latin America), it is not spoken of because it carries a stigma.

There is something vaguely Sara Ahmed in the conceptualization of stigma as something that sticks in your path, stigmatization as a condition of having-obstacles. To be stigma-free is to be free, unimpeded in movement, to exercise unstopped and unstoppable agency. But also there is this sense of the source of stigma as unspoken and unspeakable because it does not harmonize with the hegemonic narrative. It strikes a sour note. Amitav Ghosh talks about the “great derangement” of climate crisis being unrepresentable in the novel, but I think actually that is a mid-level derangement. The great derangement is something broader. And there are all these other derangements too.

[gorbalsvampire]

More Jenni! Or rather, Qingbai, or Wen-Jun, or Fenghuang…

A few years ago I came up with the idea to racelift my VTMB protag and explore what it might be like for a Chinese-American Kindred to deal with the whole Wan Kuei* situation. When even the undead are racist… and when "your kind" know you're not one of them… who can you trust? Who even likes you?

I did enough research to know I probably couldn't do enough research to serve the concept adequately. I also discovered there was, hehe, a quite famous Jenni Zhang already, and that made the whole concept feel REALLY awkward.

But I did get this cool character design out of it. The tattoos are a phoenix on her back, calling back to the very first name she had when she was just a little girl; a sorority butterfly she had dolled up into something more geometric later on; and there's a similar geometric moon design on her thigh.

She was an international student, and a wannabe film star (she does all her own stunts!). While that was working out, she was a courier, and then a nude model, and then a sex worker, because the gig economy sucks, especially when your visa isn't quite… current. And then along came a guy who offered her everything she wanted, and wasn't that bad looking, and… events unfolded.

Art by @qwib !

* Kuei-Jin is a slur as far as I'm concerned and my girl hates using it. It's taxonomically inaccurate AND word salad.

[1americanconservative]

Marina Medvin 

MIT didn’t want to punish antisemitic foreign students harassing American Jews on campus because suspension would lead to deportation under the student visa rules. So MIT chose to help the antisemites instead of punishing them.

Morality run amok.

MIT is one of the most prestigious universities in the US. These days, foreigners make up about 30% of the MIT student body. Jewish students, on the other hand, make up about 6% of the MIT student body — a campus minority.

[metamatar]

re lrb now that im interacting with white leftists... i continued to talk abt ethnostates and israel and was informed unprompted abt the excesses of black separatism and how most black people want to be americans and are no different from white people really. and look im here on a student visa and im very aware that many students are aspiring immigrants but it was really weird to be the outsider having to bring up yk. slavery and policing and how insanely racially segregated the us is and how that is a meaningfully different experience of the us. i have not met a single black professor in the school! most visibly working class people are racialised!

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Yes, although I was referring to the Latin American perspective on the Shoah. Regarding Jewish immigration, do you know which were the countries that accepted and visaed the most Jews?

I'm going to open this one up to the floor. Because I know very little about Latin American perspectives on the Holocaust. As for immigration...I don't think any Latin American countries had notable numbers. Generally they were not enthusiastic about disrupting their Catholic religious majorities. But if we're talking about the Americas, the Dominican Republic accepted a lot of Jews...because Trujillo sent his daughter to a European boarding school and everyone was racist to her except for a Jewish student, and because Trujillo believed that Jews' European blood would improve the quality of his citizens. This was after he perpetrated a policy of ethnic cleansing against Haitians on "his side" of the border.

Eugenics everywhere.