Burlington school officials say they will appeal the denial earlier this month of an O-1 visa that would have allowed Yaw Obeng to start his $153,000-a-year job as superintendent of city schools.
The denial keeps Obeng in limbo. But he still wants the job. And he says he’s confident he’ll get a visa.
“My intention is to be in Burlington for the long haul,” Obeng said by telephone Thursday. “If it takes a couple extra months to make that happen, in the long term I think it’s going to be worth that effort.”
Obeng is a senior administrator at the Halton school district in suburban Toronto. He says he doesn’t plan to officially resign from that job until his work papers come through.
It’s unclear when and whether that will happen. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services in St. Albans processed the O-1 application. Director Laura B. Zuchowski wrote the denial. She found the application failed to demonstrate that Obeng has the extraordinary ability and sustained national or international acclaim in his field — education — required to qualify for an O-1 visa.
The standard requires that applicants meet at least three of eight criteria. Obeng’s application met only one of eight, according to the denial, which was first reported Thursday by the Burlington Free Press. The one criterion met: That Obeng is employed in a critical or essential capacity for an organization with a distinguished reputation.
The review found insufficient evidence that Obeng has published scholarly articles, received internationally recognized awards or been recognized globally for scholarship in his field, however.
The denial is not a reflection on Obeng’s credentials, said interim Burlington schools superintendent Howard Smith. “It had to do with his qualification for a generic visa. Period,” Smith said. Obeng met the criteria for the superintendent job “at a very high level” and the school board continues to view him as highly qualified, Smith said.
The denial was the second visa defeat for Obeng. He also failed to get a visa under the H1B lottery program.
The school board amended Obeng’s contract from a July 1 start date to no later than October 1. Smith has agreed to fill in until then.
The school district will refile the O-1 visa application, and, if that fails, file an appeal. Either way, there should be a decision by the end of August, Smith predicted.
The district is also looking at other visa application strategies. The school district has spent about $43,000 so far on the superintendent search and the legal bills for the visa application, Smith said. That’s about $3,000 more than the initial search budget. The tab is likely to go up with more legal bills.
The visa rejection letter is here:
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Here’s an idea. Hire an American citizen to be the head of an American school system. Better yet, hire a Vermonter to be the head of a Vermont school system. I have a hard time believing that there aren’t talented people in our local community who can do this job and do it well. All I ever hear these days is that we should buy locally from our own community, supporting our businesses and our people, and I agree with that sentiment. Perhaps the Burlington school district didn’t get the memo. Anyway, this guy has lost the race before getting out of the starting gate because any credibility he may have had has evaporated as a result of this public relations fiasco. Canada can keep Obeng, and there may be prosper.
what’;s the problem? All they have to do is call Leahy’s office!
Are you insane. WE PAY FOR THE STUPIDITY OF THE SCHOOL BOARD….cut your losses and find someone else. ARE FOLKS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN VERMONT SO STUPID THERE IS NOBODY HERE WHO CAN ASSUME THE POSITION? Seems like a 5th grader could figure this out.
At the end of the day, after all the hoopla and added expense to get this wizard across the border, he’s got a tough road to hoe to prove his worth.
Other ideas?, fly him to Mexico and he can skip across the border with all the other millions of illegals. Obama will grant him immunity.
Otherwise, task a senior class to find someone in VT to do the job. Bet they find someone with cred for a lot less dinaro.
Just saying… Geesh, will it ever end?
Hey Tom A, if St. Patrick wanted to help, he would. A big presser at BTV to remind us plebs why we adore him.
If no action from our 3 Stooges, then you gotta know something is up here. Think about it, they could be heroes…
Who knows what baggage may be present here. Wise up, school board. Transparency anybody??
Don’t you think all of this should have been checked out BEFORE he was hired, i.e. his Visa was in order? Perhaps the universe is saying we should have stuck with a VERMONT candidate, the one that was runner up? I totally agree with Leonard Bast’s comments…
Here’s what I’m seeing…
St Albans Citizenship & Immigration says “What does the Burlington School Board know about its needs? This guy’s ‘ideas on diversity, equity and inclusion appear to be popular in his home country’ (!), but this is Vermont, folks… we don’t need that kind of baloney here. Trust us, we’re the homeland security folks.”
To which all (or most) of the letter writers (and “likers”) say: “That’s right–damn the foreigners! Vermonters like to stew in their own juices.”
Seriously?
— A Canadian who moved south many years ago and now suddenly feels like he did living during 9-11 in the midwest.
Here’s what I’m seeing…
St Albans Citizenship & Immigration says “What does the Burlington School Board know about its needs? This guy’s ‘ideas on diversity, equity and inclusion appear to be popular in his home country’ (!), but this is Vermont, folks… we don’t need that kind of baloney here. Trust us, we’re the homeland security folks.”
To which all (or most) of the letter writers (and “likers”) say: “That’s right–damn the foreigners! Vermonters like to stew in their own juices.”
Seriously?
— A Canadian who moved south many years ago and now suddenly feels like he did living in the Midwest after 9-11
What a boondoggle! Seems like Burlington under the Weinburger administration is chock full of mendacity, corruption and mismanagement. I would like to see Seven Days do a lengthy, in depth study and report on that, perhaps starting with the many facetted aspects of the airport and the preferential treatment of The Skinny Pancake’s permission to buck the livable wage. There is a lot of grist for the mill.
It seems like the school board thought it could just hire a foreign national like hiring a US citizen. It ain’t that easy. Then the lawyers told them an O visa was the way to go, despite it clearly requiring extraordinary and outstanding performance in a field, and international acclaim. A simple Google search shows that the candidate ain’t go it. Now the candidate publicly says: “My intention is to be in Burlington for the long haul”. Well folks, an O-visa is for an internationally acclaimed person to perform specialized work in the United States for THREE years. By declaring he wants to be here “for the long haul” the candidate is declaring his intention to stay beyond the initial period of the visa. USCIS won’t long kindly on that. Bad advice.
Hear, hear. The only problem is Seven Days is part of the problem in their love of Weinberger. They won’t be printing anything negative about that guy regardless of how money oriented he seems.
What a boondoggle! Seems like Burlington under the Weinburger administration is chock full of mendacity, corruption and mismanagement. I would like to see Seven Days do a lengthy, in depth study and report on that, perhaps starting with the many facetted aspects of the airport and the preferential treatment of The Skinny Pancake’s permission to buck the livable wage. There is a lot of grist for the mill.