Yassaie came to Britain in 1976 from Iran and became a United Kingdom national in 1984. He studied Electronics and Communications at the University of Birmingham gaining a first class honours Bachelor of Science degree in 1979. He stayed at Birmingham to complete a Doctor of Philosophy degree on the application of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) to Sonar.
Between 1976 and 1984, Yassaie was an illegal.