Pareen Mhatre of Iowa City got a reprieve, or something like that, considering she'd done nothing wrong to warrant one. She got to complete her degree from the University of Iowa in biomedical engineering. But once she gets it, in December, she could be thrust back into the visa limbo she was plunged into when she turned 21. She'll have to find an employer eager enough to sponsor her for a visa.
Laurens Van Beek, also of Iowa City and a UI alum, wasn't quite as lucky in that way, if you can call Mhatre lucky. Knowing his visa would soon become invalid and he'd have to face being picked up by immigration authorities, the 23-year-old software developer for Integrated DNA Technologies in Coralville pre-empted that. He moved back to the land of his birth and early childhood: the Netherlands.
Kartik Sivakumar, a senior in neuroscience at UI, experienced both sides. He obeyed an order to leave the country within days of getting the notice by mail. It said that since he was now 21 and off his parents' visa, he had to deport himself. He flew to Chennai, India, where he lived until age 10, when his parents brought him to Cedar Rapids for his father's career. But his reprieve came three weeks after he left, when he scored a speedy appointment for a temporary F-1 visa, got it and returned home to America.
