U.S. To Ease Student Visa Regulations

The U.S. State Department announced relaxed security clearances for international students last week, a move that is drawing applause from many scholars and students.

Foreign students and scientists working in fields deemed "sensitive" by the government-including chemistry and engineering-will now need to obtain clearance through the Visas Mantis security check once every four years instead of annually.

The security check, established in 1998, was created to prevent the illegal transfer of technologies out of the United States.

Under the new policy, students obtaining clearance will no longer need to renew it each year as long as they remain in the same program of study and at the same institution.

In the past, students had to reapply for clearance annually, causing some students who travelled back home for a short visit to be barred from re-entering the United States for many months at a time while awaiting new security clearance.

Hai Tao Liu, a Ph.D candidate in chemistry studying on a foreign student visa, had to wait in his home country of China for three weeks while the U.S. government processed his new security clearance.

Liu said the extended security clearance will attract more international students to study in the United States, a figure that has been lagging since the tightening of visa regulations.

"I think that it's good news for many international students in (the) U.S., and it will help to get more international students to (come to the) U.S. to study for their degrees," he said.

State department officials said the change was spurred in part by the delay in processing visa applications because of security concerns brought on by the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We saw that after Sept. 11, there were many complications with getting visas, with many people being backlogged, so this is part of our effort to make the process better and more efficient," said Angela Aggeler, a spokesperson for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. "We don't want to lose any students. We want the process to be as transparent and non-intimidating as possible."

At UC Berkeley, international graduate admissions have dropped in the past three years-plunging from 1,206 in 2001 to 885 in 2004.

Applications also dropped by 2,404 from 2003 to 2004.

Officials said the change could ease the stress of the security process and boost international student applications.

"We welcome this change because it reduces the anxiety a student may feel if they want to go visit home and are afraid they will have to wait many months to get a new Mantis clearance," said Ivor Emmanuel, director of Services for International Students and Scholars at UC Berkeley. "These changes are a step in the right direction. We hope the state department continues to show that it welcomes students from other countries."

But some aspects of the visa process still need modification, Emmanuel said.

"We would like to see more transparency regarding the Technology Alert List on which Visa Mantis is based. Currently, there is no public disclosure regarding what constitutes sensitive fields of study," he said.

Still, even the modest change is reassuring to students like Liu.

"I'm happy that I don't have to wait for another three weeks again this year. Oh, yes, this will definitely make my life easier," Liu said.

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