Security checks deter international students
By Joyce Tang
May 3, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Andrea Chu went back home for winter break just like any other
student ““ except that her three-week stay turned into a
seven-week stall.
The UCLA doctoral candidate in computer science from Zhengzhou,
China took her first trip home in almost four years and was delayed
because she had to undergo a security check to reenter the United
States.
“Of course I worried, but you can do nothing; you have to
wait,” Chu said of the delay.
Chu considers herself fortunate compared to others.
“During my stay there, I knew a lot of students in my
situation; some were delayed for even a year. You can imagine how
seriously that impacts their research,” Chu said.
With increasingly stringent security policies after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, international students, mostly
those studying the sciences, face security-check delays when
applying for student entry visas.
The government implemented tighter policies because one of the
terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks entered the country with a
student visa.
In response to the backlogs caused by security checks, the
Chinese Student and Scholars Association at UCLA is petitioning
with a national movement for a two-point proposal that would
alleviate the delays without compromising national security.
Students are granted study visas for their academic tenure in
the United States but need entry visas to go in and out of the
country.
Obtaining an entry visa does not cause delay. The problem lies
with additional security checks implemented after Sept.11. Students
in certain fields, mostly in science and engineering, are obligated
to undergo security checks. Such fields of study involve
information that elicit more sensitive security concerns.
Currently, international students accepted into a U.S.
university submit information and fees to the Student and Exchange
Visitor Information System and are allowed to apply for an entry
visa one month before their scheduled departure. If a student is
selected to undergo a security check, he or she can be delayed in
attending school.
The two-point proposal calls for pre-security clearance. For
first-time applicants, the security clearance would begin right
when the applicant pays the SEVIS fee, instead of waiting until the
actual application for a visa.
The second part of the proposal is for students applying for
reentry visas, calling for them to have security checks done while
they are still in the United States and then be granted
“advance parole.” When applying for their reentry visas
abroad, they would have a certificate of “security
pre-clearance” to accelerate the renewal process.
As delineated by the State Department, a student retains legal
student status even if his or her entry visa expires. But should
the student leave the country, a new entry visa needs to be
obtained to return to the United States. Also, an entry visa can
only be renewed at an embassy or consulate abroad, not in the
United States.
The General Accounting Office reports that it takes an average
of 67 days for science students to receive their visas. More
students are choosing to stay in the United States rather than deal
with possible delays.
“Many students, after they heard about my experience,
didn’t want to go back. They don’t want to be delayed
in their research,” Chu said.
Students most affected by the security checks are those from
China, India and Russia, according to the GAO. Entry visas from
China are limited to six months, so Chinese students are obligated
to obtain a reentry visa each time they leave the United
States.
At UCLA, CSSA-UCLA submitted a letter last Thursday to Claudia
Mitchell-Kernan, vice chancellor of the graduate division .
Mitchell-Kernan said she cannot personally do anything about the
issue but would endorse the proposal if she could.
“It’s a great idea, and we’re very concerned
about the visa issues for international students,”
Mitchell-Kernan said.
Zhenyu Liu, president of CSSA-UCLA, says he hopes to reach a
broader student pool, not just the international students.
Liu said international and general student unions at several
East Coast institutions wrote to Congress lobbying for change.
The proposal, which was launched last September by the Union of
Graduate Teachers and Researchers at Yale, spawned a large response
among the student unions and administrators at universities such as
Harvard, Columbia and Brown.
Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard, addressed letters in
late April to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge specifically citing the security check delay as
a deterrent for international students and research fellows.
Proponents of the proposal see Summers’ letters and other
articles written by university presidents as a sign of
progress.
Antony Zugdale, a research analyst at the Union of Graduate
Teachers and Researchers at Yale, said the movement needs to put
pressure on Congress for any positive change.
“The proposal just makes sense. It would still support
national security. It would also stop the hemorrhaging of
international students (into the United States) because right now
we’re losing the best students to Europe and
Australia,” Zugdale said.
The difficulty international students have getting into the
country, either real or perceived, could decrease the marketability
of U.S. universities in the international arena.
“International students are an essential source of the
engine that drives the many departments of the university,
especially the sciences and engineering, which are major
moneymakers in the university,” Zugdale said.
UCLA, like many large research universities across the nation,
is just as vulnerable to the competition.
“Anything that prevents us from attracting talented
students from applying would decrease the diversity and the amount
of talented students that apply ““ I think that would be a
loss,” Mitchell-Kernan said.
