Priya Sharma had done everything right. The 22-year-old from Mumbai received her admission letter to a prestigious US graduate program in January, paid her deposit in February, and submitted her visa application in March—giving herself what she thought was plenty of time before the August start date.
By July, she still hadn't received a visa appointment date. By August, she was watching her would-be American classmates post first-day-of-class photos on Instagram while she sat in Mumbai, thousands of miles from the education she'd spent years working toward. By September, she'd accepted an offer from the University of Toronto instead.
