Guitarist Denied Visa Due To Unfortunate Name
By: Gerri L. Elder
A glam-rock quartet called Fancy recently had an immigration issue to deal with before they could play their MySpace Music Tour in the United States. One of the band members, a guitar player named Mohamed Yamani happens to have a similar name as a reportedly deceased, suspected member of Al Qaeda, and this caused some Visa issues.
French-born Yamani and the three other musicians in the band applied for visas to come to the United States to tour with the band Justice. Agence France-Presse reported that the other three band members received their visas in late February. It was then that Yamani found out that his visa application had been refused.
When Yamani's record label inquired as to why he was denied a visa, the United States consulate in Paris refused to give a straight answer. The only reason given was that authorities needed to "clarify the name" on the application. Yamani is a citizen of France and holds a French passport.
Confused by the refusal and the vague answer from the U.S. consulate, the band's entourage did some research on the Internet. After a few searches, it became clearer as to what the confusion was about Yamani's name.
A terrorist by the name of Abu Mohamed Al Yamani who was reportedly an Al Qaeda envoy in Algeria before he was thought to be killed by security forces in 2006 was the cause of the visa problem. Yamani's name is so similar to the reportedly deceased terrorist's name that it caused his visa application to be denied.
Yamani is far from the first person to have difficulties in obtaining a visa to travel to the United States. According to a recent article in the Sun Star Cebu, there is a high rejection rate for visas at some U.S. consulates and once a visa application is denied, it becomes almost impossible to legally obtain a visa. As a result, some people who are desperate to immigrate to the United States apply for visas again under another name using falsified documents.
Although some people may be able to get visas using fraudulent documents and fake names and actually enter the United States, there can be serious consequences under U.S. law if they are later discovered. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a permanent one way ticket out of the United States for anyone who has obtained a visa through fraud or by willfully misrepresenting a material fact. Most definitely using a false name and fake documents to obtain a visa constitutes fraud.
Luckily Yamani did not have to resort to using a fake name or committing any other act of fraud to obtain a visa. Eventually he was granted a visa and was able to travel to the United States to play several of the MySpace tour dates with his band after missing almost a month of the tour.