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USA Today, 29 Jan 2017
— Wael Resol, 30, is an interpreter for journalists in this Kurdish area of northern Iraq. But he also is a Syrian, and that birthplace has dashed his hopes of living the American dream in Texas with his U.S.-born wife.

President Trump's total ban on letting Syrians into the United States because of security concerns, a restriction that went into effect Friday, has left Resol stuck here.

"(Trump's decision) affected me personally. I have had a migration case open for a long time," said Resol, who worked as a supervisor in an international school and a customer service representative at Qatar Airways before his current job.

He comes from a Muslim family but said that like many Kurds, he cares more about his ethnic background than his religion.

He said his wife, a U.S. citizen and teacher, moved to northern Iraq to be with him. But now he's barred from moving with her to the U.S., where he had hoped to get a master's degree in linguistics and buy a house in Texas.

Court grants temporary, emergency stay of Trump's immigration ban
Resol said he had applied for a visa three times starting in 2013. "The first time, I had an interview in Baghdad but didn't have enough time to prepare for the interview because I needed some papers from Syria and they were not fast (sending them)," he said.

Shortly after signing documents in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said his crackdown on refugees and citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries "is not a Muslim ban." (Jan. 28) AP

"The second time, the visa center wanted more documents and sent a letter to my wife's old address" and he never got it, he said. The third time, they applied in October, hired a U.S. lawyer and have been in a holding pattern ever since.

Now, he doesn't know if he'll ever get in.
Resol said he knew "bad things" were going to happen to himself and other would-be immigrants once Trump was elected. He figured that securing a visa would be harder, the wait times would get longer. But he never expected a complete ban on people from his country.

"On the first day, I was pissed off. But I said to myself, 'This is reality. I have to accept it,'" Resol said.

My wife ... wanted to go back home for a long time but we can't. She's stuck here because of me," he added. "Sometimes I feel bad about that. But then I think, 'Just because I am Syrian, I have to blame myself?'"