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Visa papers
Starting the new school year is always stressful and not fun, but a student this school year started their year 7,713 miles away. After coming to Ballard on a student Visa, sophomore Kavya Chaurasia went to visit family in India over the summer, and after 4 weeks of actively trying to renew her visa, she was able to get accepted and came back to school on September 2nd.
As for why the Visa got denied, while Kavya was in India, the new Visa law got put into place, making Kavya have to renew it for the next 3 years. While her dads was getting renewed as well, and to get your visa, both of her parents need a valid one, and to get that, you have to ship your passport to show proof of identification, and while the passport was shipped, that was the only way to get proof of ownership of Kavya. This made Kavya the only one in her family not able to renew her visa, making her basically stuck in India.
After missing 3 weeks of school, and taking all advanced and an AP class, catching up is going to be a big struggle and adjustment, especially with a 9-hour and 30-minute time difference. I talked to Kavya and asked her a few questions about being back at Ballard and The U.S, and she said that catching up will be a hard and time consuming thing to do, she also said that all of her teachers have been very understanding and helpful to her, and her friends are a big part as well doing things like sending notes, helping understanding math lessons, and studying with her.