Visa, accepted everywhere?

A basketball player named Bol Kong who plays for Douglas College in British Columbia is making waves across the NCAA landscape, recently dominating in exhibition games against moderately respected universities such as Marquette and Boise State. As a result of his success he has drawn interest from multiple universities, but more importantly he has received a scholarship from Gonzaga. There is one more step that needs to be finalized, a step that could prevent his opportunity from materializing. Bol Kong is considered the top basketball prospect in Canada.

Kong is a citizen of Sudan, which is categorized by the United States as a sponsor of terrorism. Kong has actually lived in Canada since he was seven due to the relocation of his family, however he does not hold citizenship there. His father emigrated to Canada in the early 1990's due to a tumultuous civil war in Sudan, he then sent for his wife and children. As a result of his scarce knowledge of the Canadian bureaucracy he neglected to file for citizenship for his children. Kong has obtained landed-immigrant citizenship which affords him many of the Canadian rights but technically he retains his citizenship in Sudan. He has been denied a visa to study in the U.S. three times and the foreseeable future does not look promising.

One of the more troubling issues is that the embassy will not tell Kong what documents he needs in regards to getting his visa. Kong was baffled when he attempted, stating "I thought it was simple...I figured I'd go to the embassy, tell them the decision and boom, here's the visa. They just said, 'you don't have the right documents.' They didn't tell me exactly what they are".

Several officials have commented on the situation but none have offered insight, saying that his nationality was not the cause of his denial but offering little explanation for the denial. According to the article the list of documents is long but it can vary on by the circumstances. Although one official did say his guilt by association is hard to overcome and unless there is some intervention nothing will change.

There are no reasons to obliterate the laws and start over but someone needs to help this guy along. There is a saying that goes something like this, "where there is a lack of knowledge the people perish". Unfortunately this maybe one of those situations, Kong may be done in by a small variance that has nothing to do with him whether it be his country affiliation or his father's obliviousness to procedures, either way it could be the difference between helping generations to come or living the "just to get by" life. There are other ways but for someone that looks so promising it is pretty demoralizing to see such a quagmire instead.

Nonetheless i found this interesting and perhaps i will follow this and keep the 'Sofa updated.