[申请者概况]
女性,在一家著名外企做总经理秘书,工作四五年去美国读MBA,全自费,一年学费一万七千多美元,拒签三次。
[拒签理由]
中国人不可能负担得起这么多钱爸爸作为政府官员不可能有这么多钱,否则就是腐败95%的中国学生都不回来,你也不会回来你还不如去其他国家学习呢,比如澳大利亚或加拿大。
[申诉重点]
中国人有穷有富。第一个理由以偏概全,是不合理的我爸爸的钱来路明确,中国有腐败并不证明我爸爸也腐败这里签证官的错误还是以偏概全,不合情,不合理,不公平其他中国学生不回来是其他人的错误,我反正是要回来的以这个理由拒签,还是以偏概全的错误,是不对的。不要以其他人的罪过来惩罚我身为美国签证官,为什么推广其他国家的教育事业因为签证官心情不好就说不负责任的话,做不负责任的面试决定,是不对的这是签证官的重大原则错误。
[申诉信原文]
Dear Visa Officer ,
My application for a student visa was rejected by your officers. The following is a fewreasons for my refusal given by the visa officer at my second interview. I consider thatthese reasons for rejection are completely not fair.
l. The visa officer said: "Chinese people can not afford so much money" (For the$ 17,566 that my father will provide me for my MBA program).
2. The visa officer said : my father ,as a government employee ,can not possibly have e-nough money to provide me with financial support my study in the United States ,un-less he is corrupted and must have received bribery.
3. The visa officer said ; because "95 % of Chinese student didn't come back" ,thereforeI will not come back either.
4. The visa officer also said : "you can go to Australia, Canada and other countries foryour education" ,after I said that I want to pursue my advanced education in the Unit-ed States.
I have the following arguments against the visa officer's reasons for his refusal:
1. Chinese People. The visa officer has ignored the great economic growth that has en-riched so many Chinese people. Chinese people in general are still poor but a greatnumber of them are very rich and can afford such an amount of money (according tostatistics, about six million Chinese people are millionaires). Rejecting my visa cannot be based on the fact that Chinese people in general are poor NOR should a visaofficer grant my visa on the basis of that there are six million millionaires existing inChina. The visa officer should have given a personalized interview to my specificcircumstance in which I do have enough money available to pursue my MBA degreein the United States.
My Father. As the Vice President to Jiangdong Telecommunications Designing In-stitute ,as well as a well-known specialist in the Chinese booming telecommunicationindustry ,my father has made quite a fortune by providing such international corpo-rations with professional consulting services as Motorola , Ericsson , and NEC. He isthe first people these companies are looking for when they went to Jiangdong to de-velop their business ,an island that witnesses great development in the telecommuni-cations industry.
My father is NOT a government official. The way he made money is by providinghis professional consulting services to those companies in need. There are corruptionin China but not my father the telecommunications specialist ! The visa officer's as-sumption is again based on the general environment rather than my father's specificsituation in which his money is legal and clean. That the rejection to my visa on theground that my father's income source is suspicious is an offense to my father'sname ,a well respected telecommunications expert for whom I take great proud of.Other Chinese Students. That "95 percent of Chinese student did not come back" isnot a legitimate logic that I will not come back. Other person does what doesn'tmean I will do the same! It is easy to reject my visa with this reason. However, itdeprived my right for a fair interview , which would give my particular situation areasonable judgment. Why punished me for an offense that committed by otherpeople ?
I agree that many people never came back after they sworn that they would. How-ever ,my situation is different. The particular circumstances that surround my appli-cation is ,an Ameriean MBA for me means a position of executive manager if I re-turn to China and means a job of waitress if I stay in the U. S. Which future Iwould choose7 The answer is obvious to any reasonable individual IOther Countries' MBA. Is it this visa officer's job duty to promote other country's e-ducation services while serving as an American visa officer?
Why the visa officer said this to me is because ,I guess, the visa officer was not in agood mood at the time he interviewed me (a few applicants ahead of me had severalfierce quarrels with him, plus, it was one o'clock PM the visa officer might not havehad his lunch yet! ). Good mood or bad, his judgment to a visa applicant has thedeepest impact on this person future and therefore should not be affected by any-thing other than the guidelines for a fair and reasonable visa interview.
According to my previous argument ,I respectfully request that you give my visa appli-cation another consideration: My father has money; his money is not from "corrup-tion"; I will be back to China to develop my bright future as exemplified by myfather's successful career and I do want to take an American MBA.Your reconsideration is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely yours ,
[申诉信翻译]
尊敬的签证官:
我的学生签证申请被你们拒绝。下面签证官面谈时给我的几个拒签理由。我认为这些理由完全是不公平的:
1.签证官说:“中国人不可能负担得起这么多钱”(即我爸爸为我的MB入学习支付的817,566美元。
2.签证官说:我的爸爸,一个政府雇员,是不可能有钱支持我在美国读书的,除非他搞腐败或者接受贿赂。
3.签证官说:由于“95%的中国学生没有回来”,所以我本人也不会回来。
4.签证官还说:“你去澳大利亚、加拿大或者其他国家学习吧”,针对我说的我想在去美国追求我的高等教育。
针对签证官的拒签理由,我有下列几个点申诉:
1.中国人。签证官忽视了一个事实,即伟大的经济发展已经造就了无数富有的中国人。中国人总体上是比较穷,但是一个总数很多的群体却非常富有已经能够出得起这么多钱(根据统计数字,大约有六百万中国人是百万富翁)。签证官不应该根据中国人总体贫穷这一点来拒绝我的签证;签证官当然也不应该以中国人有六百万个百万富翁而给我签证。签证官只该根据我的个人特定情况,对我进行一个符合我个人特定条件的面试并作出有关决定。我的个人特定情况是:我有足够的钱去美国读我的MBA。
2.我爸爸。作为江东省通讯研究所副所长,以及在中国发展迅猛的通讯行业里面一个比较有名的专家,我爸爸通过为一些著名的外国通讯企业如摩托罗拉,爱立信,以及NEC提供咨询服务而积攒了相当的个人资产(QUITE A FORTUNE)。当这些企业决定到江东省来发展他们的生意时——江东省这几年通讯事业发展极其迅猛——我爸爸是他们寻找的第一个对像。
我爸爸不是一个政府官员。他赚钱的方式是通过向那些需要的公司提供他的专业咨询服务。中国是有腐败但是决不是我爸爸这个通讯专家!犯着同样的错误,签证官的假设又是根据总体情况的推断而不是我爸爸的特定情况,这个情况就是他的钱来得既合法又干净。根据对我爸爸资金来源的怀疑而拒签我的签证是对于我爸爸的冒犯,一个非常受人尊敬的通讯专家一个我引以为极大的自豪的人。
3.其他中国学生。“百分之九十五的中国学生一去(美国)不回”不是一个可以证明我也不回来的有合法逻辑的推断。其他人爱做什么并不意味着我也就做什么!以这个理由来拒签我是非常容易的。但是,这就剥夺了我获得一次公平合理的面谈机会的权利;而这个公平的面谈将给予我的特定情况一个合情合理的判断。为什么因为别人犯下的罪过而惩罚我?
我不否认许多人在发誓一定回来之后却再也没有回来。但是,我的情况是不一样的。围绕我的申请的特定情况是:一个美国的MBA意味着一个总经理的位置如果我学成回国的话;反过来意味着一个女招持的工作如果我留在美国的话。我将选择什么样的一个前途?对于一个讲道理的人来说答案是很明显的。
4.其他国家的btBA。身为一个美国签证官,这位签证官的工作职责是否也包括替其他国家的教育事业做推广宣传?
为什么这位签证官对我说出这句话,我猜,是因为在轮到我面试的时候该签证官的情绪不好(我前面的几个申请者和他有激烈的争吵,而且,当时已经是下午一点签证官可能还没有吃午饭呢门。情绪好坏我不管,但签证官的判断对于一个申请者的前途有着最深远的影响,除了坚持合情合理公平的签证面谈各种原则之外,绝对不应该受到任何外来因素的干扰。
根据我前面的申述,我充满敬意地请求给我的签证申请另一次考虑。我爸爸有钱;他的钱不是来自“腐败”;我将回到中国发展我的辉煌的前途,我的爸爸的成功已经为这个前途作了最好的例证,而我确实想拿一个美国的MBA。非常感谢你们的复审。
忠诚的
[申诉信分析]
在这个案例中,签证官给了申请者田冬冬四条拒签理由。在实际面试时,签证官说的话也比一般情况下多,留下了一定的逻辑上的漏洞。
美国法律精神是:如果警察在收集证据的过程中犯了法律程序上的错误,那么这个证据就不能用来反对被告。比如:如果警察在抓住疑犯时(Suspect)没有按照程序公事公办地告诉他,他有请律师帮助的权利和拒绝回答的权利,审判时法官就可能以这个理由宣布疑犯无罪释放。
这是一个小的例子,大的案例是被称之为“世纪审判”的O.J. Simpson杀妻审判案,在刑事审判中他被无罪释放,唯一原因是参与调查证据的警察之一,在其他无关的场合,说过种族主义的话。
签证官是美国移民法的执法者。尽管有不少滥用权力的事情,但由于美国文官监督制度的成熟,签证官在面对成千上万的签证申请者时表现出的公证性,依然令人惊讶。签证官确确实实有犯错误的时候,比如看错文件,看错数字,搞错日期,以及误认为你有移民倾向等等,但只要申请者自信地指出他的错误,签证官总是毫不犹豫地改变这个错误,扭转拒签的决定。本书的这些获得反败为胜的申诉信及其他案例,就是对于这个结论的证明。
现在我们再来谈田冬冬的案例:签证官给田冬冬的几个拒签理由,是美国签证处天天重复的拒签理由,因为这些理由都是根据痛苦的现实得出的结论,是一个普遍的“事实”。但是,当签证官以这些理由拒签任何一个具体的申请者时,这些理由马上就变得一个也不合理。因为签证官或者任何执法者都不可以用普遍事实来证明特殊案例。美国有百分之十的同性恋,不等于第十个签证官就是同性恋。所以,田冬冬的申诉信只是告诉了签证官这个简单的道理,以及自己的“具体”的特殊个性:中国人没有钱,不等于我没有钱;中国有腐败,不等于我爸爸腐败,我爸爸偏偏一支独秀怎么办?很多其他中国学生都没有回国,并不证明我不回国,为什么要以其他人犯过的罪过来惩罚我?
最后一个问题是签证官用得最多的拒签理由和普遍心态。即:大部分中国学生到了美国都放弃原先的承诺按时回来,那么作为“中国学生”之一的你当然就属于这个高危险的人群,需要特别审查。怀疑和审查不要紧,要紧的是你自己必须拥有强大的“自信”,你将回来。别人不回来,恰恰是你一定回来的原因:因为这样你作为高级人才的价值和身份在国内更加紧俏,更容易成功,不回来干嘛?你有无数的武器,击败签证官的这个拒签。
可惜是绝大多数申请者,在签证官这个拒签理由面前,失去了反驳的意识和信心,总是沉默地束手就擒。根据美国签证哲学,你只要把你的“具体”个案的“具体”回国理由(回国继续你原有的、或将有的事业的成功)告诉签证官,你就一定能够“disapprove”签证官的这个理论,为你赢得应有的胜利。
田冬冬就这个问题进行的反驳和申述,可以说是经典。读者应该把这封信的内容,结合自己的个人情况,进行“自信”的申辩。
在信的最后,田冬冬告了一点签证官的状,这也显示了田冬冬了不起的“自信”,显示了她优秀的素质。签证官当然不可以替其他国家的教育事业作推销,否则他拿谁的钱?(签证官心情再不好,也是绝对不会对美国公民这么讲话的)。根据美国签证哲学,在成熟的美国文官制度的监督体系下,签证官不可、也不会滥用权力。所以,这里指出签证官的错误是有必要的;发现签证官的错误并指出,从而使签证官改变错误,是签证申述的唯一目的。