NPR

How A Half-Hour In A U.S. Embassy Changed A Life

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to an immigrant, Christopher Francis from Sri Lanka, who was looking for the man who gave him a visa to enter the U.S. 45 years ago.
Francis in front of the White House, shortly after immigrating to the U.S. in the 1970s.

Christopher Francis prayed in earnest before arriving at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1973.

It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon and the course of his life depended on this moment. He needed to make a case to a man named David C. Harr about why he deserved a visa to the United States.

That's because Francis grew up Tamil, a persecuted ethnic minority in Sri Lanka. In the 1970s, tensions between Tamils and the majority Sinhalese

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