Graduate student government officials say Congress needs to take
action to make student visas more accessible if UCLA wants to
continue to attract the best and brightest students not only from
California, but from around the world.
The UCLA Graduate Students Association and other advocates of
student visa reform are building a campaign throughout the country
to implement changes that would make the student visa process more
available and inviting to international scholars.
While the U.S. Department of State Web site claims that
“the United States welcomes foreign citizens who come to the
U.S. to study,” GSA President Jared Fox says the hassle and
the intricacies of the student visa process deter international
students from even applying to institutions such as UCLA, and
negatively affect the quality of life for international students
already enrolled in a course of study.
Student visas are a serious issue for the graduate student
community at UCLA, because 16 percent of graduate students are
international.
Students have been fighting against the changes made to student
visas since their inception. When former United States Student
Association president Julia Beatty testified before Congress in
2001, she said stringent post-Sept. 11 reforms to student visas
would negatively affect a large portion of the research and
teaching workforce at American universities.
Beatty said that roughly one quarter of the doctoral degrees
awarded in the United States are to international students.
Primary reforms that have been suggested to visa policies
include granting students multiple-entry visas and allowing
visiting students to get a head start on re-entry paperwork and its
six-month waiting period.
Such reforms are aimed at increasing accessibility to education
for international students without making the United States any
less safe, Fox said.
Currently, visa holders who must apply for re-entry cannot begin
to generate their paperwork until they return to their country of
origin, and applicants from many countries face long wait times for
the required interview at an embassy or consulate.
The typical wait time for an interview appointment, which is
required to initiate the application process, ranges from the same
day in many countries to roughly one month in London and Belfast,
and 81 days in Chennai, according to the U.S. Department of
State.
Difficulties with re-entry procedures and special restrictions
may prevent international students from going home to visit their
families.
“For someone in a six year Ph.D program, that’s a
serious problem,” Fox said.
According to the U.S. Department of State, a series of changes
enacted on student visas after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
“involve extensive and ongoing review of visa issuing
practices as they relate to our national security.”
The changes include special restrictions for visa applicants
from North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Sudan, Iran and Libya ““ six
nations the State Department calls “state sponsors of
terrorism.”
Since these changes have been enacted, there has been a serious
decline in international enrollment, which is not only bad for
educational diversity, but also for the country’s economy,
Fox said.
“International scholars have contributed for years to make
the U.S. strong,” Fox said. “All the great scientists
like Einstein have come from somewhere else. It’s a big
problem if we’re deterring them from coming to the
U.S.”
GSA Vice President of External Affairs Cindy Mosqueda has been
working closely with the UC Office of the President on student visa
issues.
Deep concern has been expressed regarding student visas and the
many other obstacles foreign students seeking to attend UC graduate
programs must face, said Ravi Poorsani, a spokeswoman for UCOP.
Last week’s UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco
was the first time the issue was raised and discussed at any great
length, and UCOP is not committed to any future action at this
time, Poorsani said.
Student visa reform was a major point of contention at the
National Association of Graduate and Professional Students lobby
day in Washington, D.C., last February.
The issue has been on graduate student government
officers’ agendas for a long time, said Amanda Moussa, the
2004-2005 vice president of external affairs for GSA.
But only recently have student efforts been getting a good
response from bodies such as the regents, she said.
While the issue has been given some attention, Fox fears that
student visa reform won’t be a major source of concern for
the University of California Students Association this year.
“(The UC) has promised a lot of increases in fees that may
be jockeying for top priority,” Fox said.
GSA also wants to work more extensively with the UCLA
Undergraduate Students Association Council on the matter.
USAC has focused on a number of issues regarding accessibility
to education in recent years, and student visa reform goes
hand-in-hand with their goals, Fox said.
But to make significant progress on making visas more easily
obtained by international students, work needs to be done beyond
university-based student government, and even beyond national
lobbying groups such as the United States Students Association, Fox
said.
While a variety of proposals regarding student visa reform
exist, most of them are originating at the university level. For
concrete progress to be made, members of Congress would have to
take hold of the issue and enact legislation.
The events of Sept. 11 still hold recently tragic memories for
many Americans, and it will likely be a long time before Congress
is willing to take any further action on visa reform, Fox said.
“We do need more security about people that are coming
into our country, but harassing people who are coming here to be
students and benevolently coming to this country isn’t the
way to go about it,” Fox said.