Syrian mother Dahouk Idriss says she can't wait for US President-elect Joe Biden to be inaugurated Wednesday, so she can finally visit her son for the first time in four years.
Biden has pledged that, on his first day in office, he would reverse a ban ordered by Donald Trump on travel to the United States for citizens of many mostly-Muslim countries.
"I'm counting the days until I get my next visa," Idriss told AFP, sitting in her comfortable Damascus living room, surrounded by pictures of her far-flung children and late husband.
The retired chemistry teacher in her sixties said she visited her 36-year-old son twice after he started studying in Washington DC the year Syria's war broke out in 2011, once in 2015 and the last time in late 2016.
But after Trump took over the White House in 2017, he banned access to the United States to all travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, igniting international outrage and leading to domestic court rulings against it.
Iraq and Sudan were dropped from the list, but in 2018 the Supreme Court upheld a later version of the ban for Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen -- as well as North Korea and Venezuela.
Idriss slammed the ban as "outrageous".
"Thousands of mothers like me around the world only have one wish, which is to see their children again," AFP quoted her as saying.
That should be possible for many under Biden -- at least once the separate international travel restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic ease.
That may take some time, however, with Biden's team declaring Monday that "with the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel".
To travel anywhere from Syria has become increasingly difficult since the war broke out as many countries severed ties with Damascus.
Obtaining a visa often requires a trip to an embassy in a neighboring country, which has been made even more difficult by Covid-19 restrictions.
"I will travel to any country to submit my documents as soon as they start accepting applications," Idriss said.
In another part of Damascus, 79-year-old Lamees Jadeed said she too hoped Biden would keep his promise.
"It's been more than four years since I last saw my daughter," she said. "I'm scared I'll die alone without seeing her.
"I'm probably more impatient for Biden to become president than he is himself."
Her daughter, 38-year-old Nawwar, travelled to the United States on a scholarship in late 2015. She has since applied for asylum and therefore cannot leave the country.
Jadeed says she travelled once to Lebanon in 2018 to request a visa at the US embassy there, but was rejected.