Some Iran ties preclude a U.S. visa Kareem Fahim and Erin Cunningham, The Washington Post Feb. 27, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Arash, right, was sent to the IRGC when he began his mandatory military service a decade ago, and spent his service playing clarinet in a marching band, according to Mahdis, his American wife, on the left.Family photo. ISTANBUL - When Mahdis, an American teacher from Southern California, applied for a U.S. visa for her Iranian husband four years ago, she had no idea that his mandatory military service would stand in their way. But a Trump administration decision two years ago to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization has meant that everyone associated with the group, including those like her husband, Arash, who were forced to join it as part of their compulsory service, would no longer be eligible for residency in the United States.