Immigration
At the time of finalizing his decision to immigrate, for many
days his mind was occupied with what to do with his business.
Reza had no idea that he had already slipped up and the identity
of the Yahoo account holder that was receiving thousands of
stolen cards per week was already identified by the FBI. Reza
considered the many ways to protect himself from being caught
and punished in the USA.
Never accessing his website from within the U.S. was one of
those ways. To go around this problem Reza asked his website
programmer to create a different website with redirect to a
limited admin panel for Reza. This way no matter what, the full
admin panel would not be exposed to the FBI.
Since his chats were monitored, the prosecution used his
conversations to convince the judge that he intended to continue
with his business after arriving to the USA. However, they
limited their scope of understanding Reza’s thoughts and
intentions by only concentrating on those chats. They never asked, nor considered Reza’s thoughts that followed those chat
conversations. As the days neared his departure for USA, Reza
believed that he could not make any mistakes in the USA. He had
just married and understood that he should make no mistakes or
a wrong move. He convinced himself that what he had earned so
far happened in that past chapter of his life, and that the new
chapter should not rely on the past. This thought process is what
assured him that he had to leave his business completely.
Having made his decision, Reza turned everything to his
friends and asked them to never contact him in regard to this
business. Not by e-mail, not by phone, nor by text. He also sold
his 15 Bitcoins that he had left in his Bitcoin wallet to help him
financially with his immigration. At the time the price of one unit
of Bitcoin was about $350. At the moment of writing this story,
the price of one Bitcoin was about $8,000. Throughout the years
that Reza used Bitcoin, the price maintained at about $300 to
$400. Shortly after Reza sold his Bitcoins and left his business,
the value skyrocketed. Since then, the highest price of one
Bitcoin peaked at about $20,000.
After transferring the business, Reza spent all of his time
concentrating and preparing for his immigration. He and his wife
spent the next six months full of excitement, stress, and pressure
getting ready for their travel. Since he never served the
mandatory military time, technically Reza was not able to leave
the country. However, he managed to get a special permission
pass for a 30-day travel and only to Turkey. It’s worth noting that
the first time Reza had ever touched a U.S. dollar bill was before
his travel to Turkey.
Turkey
The visa interview was scheduled for December 2nd, 2015 in
a U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey. Reza felt sure that his wife
and him would be granted a visa. Thus, they said their goodbyes
and grabbed all of their prepared luggage and left Iran. Because
of the conflicted relations between Iran and the USA, since 1979,
there are no embassies in the countries representing each other.
This directs all Iranians to visit an embassy in one of the
neighboring countries such as Turkey, UAE, and Armenia, for all
visa interviews. Since 9/11 even more pressure was applied to
Iranian citizens seeking visas.
Those thatserved in the military or worked for the government
of Iran were subjected to additional security checks to make sure
that the applicant is not related to programs of the regime of
Islamic Republic of Iran. This presumption of guilt stings at
times, especially knowing that there has not been any Iranian
people identified as a terrorist within the past 30 years. Iranians
are everywhere, including high posts in Google, Yahoo, NASA,
Dropbox, Twitter, AT&T, eBay, UBER, etc.
Reza had neither a governmental job nor service in the
military and was sure that he would not be subjected to long
background checks. Although Homeland Security had requested
that the embassy approve Reza’s visa, it was unnecessary as it
was happening in the course of things all on its own.
In late November, Reza and his wife landed at Ankara
International Airport on a sunny, but cold day. It was the first
foreign country Reza had ever visited. When he lived in Iran he
rarely traveled unless he had to. Sometimes he went to Tehran
only for paperwork purposes. From the airport they went to the hotel which Reza had booked online from Iran. It was located in
one of the main streets of Ankara that leads to many embassies.
Turkey, at first sight, was attractive for Reza. The restaurants
and cafes seemed all the times full of young boys and girls. Reza
often wondered So when do they work? People looked happy, or
at least in comparison to the people in Iran who are always
preoccupied with their concerns, the atmosphere in Ankara was
not as dull as Iran’s.
It was sad for Reza to see a Syrian refugee family; a man, a
woman, and their two kids, sitting on a sidewalk on carton boards
and begging for money. It was not the Syrian guy’s right to leave
his country with his decent life (before the war) and immigrate to
Turkey to live under that humiliating situation. Neither it was
Reza’s right to leave Iran and go to the USA and become a U.S.
citizen. The difference between these two immigrants were their
luck. At least at that point of time, the Syrian refugee was
unlucky, and Reza was the lucky one.
The hotel Reza and his wife resided in was cold. Reza
complained about it to the manager of the hotel. He convinced
Reza that the problem was not from the hotel. The temperature
was standard according to other hotels in Europe. But Reza was
from a country where energy was very cheap. When they are
cold, they turn up the fireplace, as soon as they feel warm, instead
of turning down the fireplace, they open the windows to receive
cold air. This bad habit is still common in many families in Iran.
On a cold day on December 2nd, Reza and his wife finally had
their visa interview. Two weeks later, they were given their visas.
Shortly after, they purchased their tickets. After two long flights
from Ankara to Istanbul, and then from Istanbul to New York
City, they landed at JFK airport on December 21st. Reza and his wife then changed yet for another flight to their final destination
of San Diego.
JFK airport, New York City
Prior to the flight they did not get much rest as last-minute
shopping and packing, along with running endorphins, made a
good night’s sleep impossible. Reza slept throughout most of the
flight, missing some meals. He told his wife that he will eat once
they arrive. Little did he know that his next meal would be served
in jail.
As soon as they arrived at the airport, staying in line, Reza saw
an officer who was checking the passports of the passengers.
There were also three other people a few steps behind the officer,
eagerly looking at the faces of the passengers. They were
apparently looking for their beloved family member. Once it was
Reza’s turn, their passports were checked, and they were led to a
special room.
Reza thought that it was all a part of the immigration process
and when the authorities took their cell phones and asked for the
passcodes, they paid no mind to it. Only after going through their
phones, they informed Reza of the charges against him.
Before their travel to the U.S., Reza deleted all contents of his
e-mail that he used for work. However, he forgot to delete some
files and messaging apps. In fact, he forgot to leave the phone
behind in Iran. After looking through Reza’s phone, an FBI
agent asked him some questions pertaining to his website. It was
then that Reza understood why he was in that room and who were
the people surrounding him. If Reza would have been told the
reason for asking for their passcodes to the iPhones, he would have never given them away.
To be continued...
Full version of this book is available on Amazon, Walmart, etc. as e-book and paper back,
Noumena: True Story of Reza
By Milad R.K.
