Oakland Tribune,  Sep 14, 2006  by Ian Thomas, CORRESPONDENT

The U.S. State Department told a San Francisco State University Arabic assistant language professor Wednesday he could finally come home after waiting almost 90 days in limbo for a security clearance.

“It’s like one of those moments when you wake up in the morning and you just don’t believe it,” said Mohammad Ramadan Salama, 38, who was stranded in Canada since June 20 when his visa was abruptly canceled.

Salama, an Egyptian citizen, said no one at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto or with the State Department explained why his visa took so long.

He said it’s possible his security clearance finally matured, or that media coverage played a part. He mentioned that officials at the State Department seemed to speak more respectfully to him once his story was published.

“It is a completely shattering atrocity, as if I was in a shell for 90 days, like I was in jail. I was separated from my children, my wife and from my career,” Salama said in a telephone interview hours after he got word of his visa.

Salama said he plans to travel to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto from London, Canada, today to pick up his O-1 Visa. He then plans to visit his children in Wisconsin for one day before returning to his classes at San Francisco State.

An O-1 visa is for non-immigrant citizens of foreign countries who demonstrate extraordinary abilities or achievements in the arts, sciences, athletics, motion picture industry, education or business. O-1 applications require substantial documentation on the applicant’s past.

Salama, whose wife and two children are U.S. citizens, has a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin and was to begin his second year teaching Arabic language and literature at San Francisco State.

“You’d think that when someone who has responsibilities to a university and benefits our national security by teaching Arabic language and culture, it wouldn’t take so long,” Paul Sherwin, dean of the San Francisco State’s humanities department, said after hearing of Salama’s clearance.

Sherwin said he thinks Salama’s wait is an obvious result of the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

San Francisco State hired Salama last fall in response to a growing demand for Arabic language classes since 9-11.

c2006 ANG Newspapers.