An ISU professor is stranded in Germany after U.S. officials refused to renew a visa she needs to re-enter the country.

Maria Axenovich, assistant professor of mathematics, traveled to Dresden, Germany, to research discrete math during the summer, said her husband, Joerg Schmalian, associate professor of physics.

Though Axenovich is still in Germany, her husband continues to teach at Iowa State. Attempts to reach Axenovich via e-mail were unsuccessful.

The couple went to Germany in May and anticipated returning home at the end of the summer, Schmalian said. He said these plans were changed when Axenovich faced problems with renewing her visa.

“She applied for a visa renewal on June 17 in Berlin at the U.S. Consular,” he said. “Two weeks later she was contacted by the U.S. Consulate and told she must provide documentation of all her research at ISU.”

The documentation was then sent from the U.S. Consulate to the State Department for review.

The Consulate has been doing a background security check on Axenovich since she was first contacted, Schmalian said. No information is being released to Axenovich concerning how long the checks will take or why, Schmalian said.

“I have the suspicion that the procedures aren’t being done very efficiently, but I can’t prove that because I can’t get any information,” he said.

Schmalian said he hired an immigration lawyer from Des Moines to review his wife’s case. Lori Chesser, their attorney, tried to argue that no background check is needed for Axenovich.

Despite those efforts, Schmalian said, “The U.S. Consular said there are new regulations not made public that not everyone is subject to, but Maria is.”

He said the mathematics department has contacted Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who have been dealing with the State Department.

Schmalian said he suspects the problem is that Axenovich was born in Russia and is a permanent Russian citizen. Also, Schmalian was born in Germany, making Axenovich a permanent resident of Germany following their wedding. He said his wife’s status as a scientist makes her more suspicious, and said Axenovich is employed at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Ames Laboratory.

Schmalian said none of her research is classified and all relates to discrete mathematics. She said the Energy Department wrote to the State Department about a year ago stating that Axenovich’s work is valuable to public interest and she should stay in the United States.

He said the State Department concluded Axenovich’s work is of public interest and ruled four months ago that she should stay in the country.

Schmalian said he knows that Axenovich is not the only person from Iowa State facing immigration problems.

“Maria is not an isolated case. More than one-third of this year’s new graduate students in my department couldn’t come for the term because they couldn’t get their visas together,” he said.

Schmalian said he will not remain in Ames longer than two months. He plans to head to Dresden to be with his wife and 2-year-old son. Schmalian said he would like to return to Ames with his wife.

Dan Ashlock, a colleague of Axenovich’s, said the department will suffer greatly if she is not allowed to return.

“Losing her will be really sad especially since recently three other professors have taken jobs elsewhere,” said Ashlock, associate professor of mathematics.

He said that the department is using everyone they can to fill the open positions and keep classes on the schedule.

Ashlock said professors have been reassigned within the department, temporary professors have been hired and graduate students have been asked to teach extra classes.

The department can’t take any more losses, he said. “We’ve used every possible person in Ames who can teach math.”