‘Just a normal Friday for an Iranian’: US founder says her wedding in Turkiye got called off

Iranian-origin US founder Kiana Ehsani reacted to the new Green Card rules and shared a heartbreaking update on her life. Though she is not a Green Card applicant, and already a Green Card holder, Ehsani said the situation for her is no better. “Today I was supposed to be on my way to Turkiye for my wedding,” Ehsani said adding that her wedding had to be called off as all flights to and from Iran are canceled and her family can’t leave Iran.Ehsani said they chose Turkiye for the wedding as it’s close to Iran. She was supposed to get married with a close group of family members from both sides on a boat on the Mediterranean Sea at sunset.She said instead of going to Turkiye, she stumbled upon the new Green Card rule that applicants have to go back to their countries to apply. “This means every one of my Iranian friends who are here on a visa now has to go back home (on which flight?) to get a green card??? As if it’s that easy? We all know getting back to the US for Iranians is a huge challenge (months and months of waiting for a visa, with a chance of never being able to come back),” she wrote.Ehsani said she had been in the US for 11 years and has been a Green Card holder for five years, which makes her eligible to apply for citizenship. But it doesn’t matter because Iranians are not allowed for any kind of immigration now because of the ongoing US-Iran war.“And this is just a normal Friday for an Iranian. These days, when people ask how I’m doing and how I’m handling everything, I just say: It’s okay, it’s okay. It will be okay some day. But the reality is: nothing is okay. I’m in constant pain. I haven’t seen my family and loved ones in years, I barely hear about their wellbeing, and I’m constantly worried about them. I’m just burying myself in work because that’s the only distraction that can save me from losing my mind. I’m not okay. None of us are okay. We are just barely holding it together…” she wrote.A PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington, Ehsani was the co-founder of Vercept, which has now been acquired by Anthropic.