Help Me Leave the U.S To My Country After My Visa Was Denied

Hi everyone,

My name is Abdallah. I’ve been a research scholar for the past year, dedicating myself to a research study focused on helping lower limb amputees through developing a perturbation balance training and fall prevention program using a treadmill that imitates real-world falling conditions and trains those patients to use it to learn how to recover from potential falls on the prosthesis. It was an unpaid position, but I gave it my all because I believed in the impact it could make for such a vulnerable group of patients.

After the first 7 months, I was offered a paid role to stay and continue working on this research for another year, and we started the process of transitioning my exchange visitor visa to an H-1B skilled worker visa. Unfortunately, what should’ve been a smooth transition became a long, uncertain wait. The process dragged on for 5 months due to administrative delays and the new administration taking over. I remained hopeful that the visa would be approved — all signs pointed that way, and the legal team never anticipated a denial.

During this time, while waiting, I ran out of money. I kept borrowing and leaning on credit cards and friends, always believing that once the visa was approved, I’d start working and be able to pay it all back. But after 5 months of waiting, immigration denied my visa — something I didn’t see coming at all.

Now I’m in a very difficult situation. My current visa status ends on April 14th, and I’m required to leave the U.S. as soon as I can within the grace period I have, so as not to face an immigration problem. The cheapest ticket I can find is around $1,200, and I currently have $3,500 in debt. Every day that passes adds more pressure and more debt. I don’t have any money left, and I urgently need to exit the country in a proper and respectful way after that year of dedication and hard work.

The hardest part is that the decision came so late and so suddenly that it froze my ability to find any alternatives. If I had known this would happen, I would’ve reacted earlier and avoided this situation. But everything pointed toward me staying, continuing the work, and being able to recover financially. This unexpected denial has truly come as a shock and has put me in a difficult financial position. I really tried to do everything I could to cover my expenses and repay my debts. I wasn’t allowed to work outside of my institution, so I tried to do small, legal side hustles on campus — like volunteering as a research participant in different labs, donating blood, and taking part in studies. But even after taxes, the small amounts I received were never close to enough to cover basic living costs.

On top of that, my family — who supported me with everything they could for the past year — have reached their limit. Over the last 12 months, they invested their savings and stability into helping me chase this career opportunity, hoping it would lead to something sustainable. But due to the crushing currency exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and our home currency, they are now unable to help me any further.

I’m reaching out to anyone who can help me exit this situation with some dignity. I still hope that one day I’ll be able to return and build a good career path in the strongest country in the world that has always welcomed hard workers. But for now, I just need help to get to my home country to stop the draining and minimize the debts, where I’ll at least be with my family and won’t have to carry this burden alone.

I’m thankful for the experience I had here — the research, the friends I made, the U.S. cultural exposure, and the opportunity to learn. Any support you can provide, whether financial or simply by sharing this message, would mean the world to me.

Thank you so much for reading, for caring, and for helping me through this difficult moment.

With gratitude,

Abdallah