trannytrent
in
ftm
Immigration and Fulbright
Hey all,
So this is a really obscure question. I realize my situation is rather unique and most probably I won't find too many answers in here or in most places that I look into. But here goes.
I'm a foreign national, specifically, I'm from Cyprus (small island in the Mediterranean) and I'm here on a student visa as I'm a grad student at Michigan State. I did my undergrad here too and for that I was funded by the Cyprus-America Scholarship Program (CASP), which is part of the Fulbright Commission. For those who don't know, when you get a Fulbright sponsored scholarship, there is a 2-year home country return clause (i.e. basically you have to go home for a minimum of 2 years after you're done with studies). This is a really iron-clad clause, but recently I heard that there have been rare instances where people have been able to stay and not go home for the two years. The reason why I don't want to return home, beyond the whole having to live as a woman at home (family, small Armenian community, etc.), is that there is a strong possibility that if I try to return after those two years, that I would not be allowed back in because of some "sexual deviance" stuff within INS (or whatever it's called now) regulations that most often get used to not allow trans folks and folks with HIV from entering the country.
My question is this. Do folks know of lawyers that would know anything about any of this that I could consult with? Whether on the trans/immigration stuff or about ways to get out of Fulbright scholarships? Maybe lawyers that would be willing to talk with me for little or no pay, because I'm broke? I'm not sure where to start looking.
So this is a really obscure question. I realize my situation is rather unique and most probably I won't find too many answers in here or in most places that I look into. But here goes.
I'm a foreign national, specifically, I'm from Cyprus (small island in the Mediterranean) and I'm here on a student visa as I'm a grad student at Michigan State. I did my undergrad here too and for that I was funded by the Cyprus-America Scholarship Program (CASP), which is part of the Fulbright Commission. For those who don't know, when you get a Fulbright sponsored scholarship, there is a 2-year home country return clause (i.e. basically you have to go home for a minimum of 2 years after you're done with studies). This is a really iron-clad clause, but recently I heard that there have been rare instances where people have been able to stay and not go home for the two years. The reason why I don't want to return home, beyond the whole having to live as a woman at home (family, small Armenian community, etc.), is that there is a strong possibility that if I try to return after those two years, that I would not be allowed back in because of some "sexual deviance" stuff within INS (or whatever it's called now) regulations that most often get used to not allow trans folks and folks with HIV from entering the country.
My question is this. Do folks know of lawyers that would know anything about any of this that I could consult with? Whether on the trans/immigration stuff or about ways to get out of Fulbright scholarships? Maybe lawyers that would be willing to talk with me for little or no pay, because I'm broke? I'm not sure where to start looking.