- I have not given up completely but it feels like the odds that I can go away are very small.

So I plan rather according to how it will be if I have to stay in Sweden than if I were to move, says Moana Södergren who only has two weeks left before the semester begins.

Everything was ready for the trip already this spring, she had been admitted to an exchange semester at the University of Massachusetts and canceled her student apartment in Uppsala.

But in May, she was told that the US Embassy in Sweden had stopped issuing student visas due to covid rules and lack of resources, and students who had already booked an appointment were automatically canceled.

"Dreams that are shattered"

- It is dreams that are shattered.

They have already had a whole year where they have not been able to do anything.

It is not so easy to read the distance to the United States nine hours away.

And now everything is ready, they have received their visa documents, there is a ten-minute interview left, and then it stops, says Lena Westman, CEO of Study Abroad.

There is no coherent picture of how many Swedes are affected.

But according to SVT's tour of Swedish organizations and universities that organize study abroad, more than 1,200 Swedish students would have gone to the USA this autumn.

But only between 10 and 30 percent have managed to get a visa.

More and more countries are closing their doors

The only way to get around the problem has been to apply for a visa at the US Embassy in another European country.

Germany, Spain, France and Poland are some of the countries that have received Swedish students.

At the same time, more and more countries have begun to close their doors to foreign nationals who want to book new appointments.

And some who have booked appointments have repeatedly had their interviews canceled at the last minute.

- It is country by country, week by week.

So now it is basically only Romania left, says Lena Westman.

The problem lies with the American embassy in Stockholm, which only handles urgent visa matters due to the pandemic. In an email to SVT, they write that they regret what has happened, that you have to prioritize American citizens, but do what you can to catch up.