Foreign students face visa backlog
By Bill Morrison
Staff Reporter

A panel of college experts warned the U.S House of Representatives Science Committee that something needs to be done about the backlog of visa applications, but TCU officials said they haven’t encountered any problems yet.

The hearing focused on the immigration problems facing foreign graduate students in mathematics, science and engineering, who have come under increased scrutiny since the terrorist attack in 2001. John Singleton, International Student Services director, said it is too early to tell if they will have any problems.

Singleton said they have just started sending out I-20 applications, which are university forms verifying full-time student status, and that they should be getting responses back in two to three months. He said response time varies from embassy to embassy because there is not a universal system for handling visa request.

“Most students are writing back that it is taking them at least a month and a half to get an appointment with the embassy,” Singleton said. “They don’t know how long the wait will be after that to get the visa.”

Thus far, Singleton said, there have been no more visa denials than usual. Several people have been denied, Singleton said, but it is not uncommon for people to be denied. Applications to graduate programs in physical science, biology and chemistry will be looked at closely and be harder to obtain than other visas, Singleton said.

“Now, with the potential for terrorist scientists, any science that might be manipulated by someone with means other than academic, we anticipate to be tough areas to get a visa,” Singleton said.

Problems for scientists stem from the expansion of the Technology Alert List, which the State Department created to prevent the export of sensitive information. Singleton said for students whose field of study is on the alert list, they can expect to wait a minimum of 45 days for background checks to be run.

Janice Jacobs, deputy assistant for visa services at the State Department, said the program that approves visas for those students has seen a huge increase in cases and refusals. At any one time, she said, they have 2,000 cases pending.

One field where it remains difficult to obtain a visa for is Intensive English, Singleton said. He said they are seeing more students accepted under a new combination program though.

New students aren’t the only ones who must worry about getting visas, Singleton said. He said students have expressed concern that once they leave the country, they will have trouble getting back in. Of the two students who have already left and sought reentry, one has had trouble getting in.

David Ward, president of the American Council of Education, strongly recommended that the State Department create a temporary validation system for foreign students traveling for a limited time. This is something that Jacobs said the State department is working on.

This report contains information from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

w.c.morrison@tcu.edu