US universities urges acceleration of visa processing (Xinhua) Updated: 2004-02-26 14:08
The Association of American Universities (AAU) on Wednesday urged the
Congress to examine the international student and scholar visa reviewing process
which it described as "inefficient, lengthy, and difficult."
In a letter sent to Sherwood Boehlert, chairman of the Committee on Science
of the US House of Representative, and Bart Gordon, ranking member of the
committee, the AAU said the current visa adjudication process "is discouraging
international students and scholars from making the United States their
destination of choice."
The letter coincided with a report published by the General Accounting Office
(GAO), the investigating arm of the Congress, which found heightened security
measures in place since the Sept. 11 2001 attacks have lengthened the visa
application process to anaverage of 67 days for foreign students and scientists.
A small portion of applications studied had a processing time of over six
months, the report said.
The GAO report said the State Department's and the FBI's information systems
do not communicate as well as they could, adding to the problem.
The AAU said there may be new evidence to suggest that the current visa
process "is already taking a toll on the future of American science."
Earlier this month, several higher education organizations jointly surveyed
US colleges and universities to determine whether there had been a drop in the
number of applications from international students for the fall of 2004 compared
to the fall of 2003.
"While the results of the survey are still being analyzed, preliminary
results indicate that applications from prospective international graduate
students decreased for 2004," the AAU letter said.
Officials with the FBI and the Homeland Security and State Departments
testified before the House Science Committee in response to the GAO report. They
said delays have been reduced significantly since the GAO began examining the
system last year, and they continued to work on those problems.
"The United States has for decades been the world leader in attracting the
best and brightest international graduate students, and declining international
graduate student applications may be a harbinger of a diminishing leadership
role for American science," the AAU said.
"There should be no doubt that other countries will be happy to pick up the
slack," the letter said.
