GOVERNMENT & POLICY
IMMIGRATION REFORM Changes spell uncertain future for foreign students at U.S. institutions WILLIAM G. SCHULZ, C&EN WASHINGTON
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quickly to brief stakeholders on IPASS once the plan was developed because of "anxiety in the academic community" "Compared to where we were in October, people feel they can live with IPASS," says Wendy D. White, director of the Board on International Scientific Organizations at the National Academies. Her office organized an OSTP briefing on IPASS for several scientific societies, including the American Chemical Society "People should be controlled at the border, not walled off at universities," says Victor C.Johnson, associate executive director for public policy at the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs (NAFSA). "In concept, IPASS should work." Johnson and others are more concerned right now about the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) Student & Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), announced on May 10 by Attorney General John Ashcroft. SEVIS is an Internetbased system meant to provide the government and educational institutions with away to swap real-time information about
MMIGRATION REFORM BECAME A FAST-
moving policy front in Washington, D.C., in May From the White House to Capitol Hill, a host of new regulations —some with potentially significant impact for foreign students and academic institutions—came tumbling forth. The action began in early May when the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) began briefing stakeholders on the new Interagency Panel on Advanced Science & Security (IPASS). The panel will work to identify students or scholars who seek training in "uniquely available" or "sensitive" areas of study which they might then try to use against the U.S. (C&EN, May 13, page 26). The panel provides a mechanism to review students on a case-by-case basis, says James A. Griffin, an OSTP assistant director. He said the IPASS review panel would mostly be reviewing foreign nationals who seek postgraduate education and training in the U.S. "This is the Administration's response to the presidential directive of Oct. 29, 2001," Griffin says. He says OSTP moved
"We can't say until fall how many people might be denied visas."
foreign students (C&EN, May 20, page 8). "There's not huge confidence in our community that this is going to work,"Johnson says. He says it's possible that INS will adjust the SEVIS system compliance deadline of Jan. 30,2003, because "the reality is, INS has not yet provided technical specifications for the development of reporting systems." Johnson explains that each institution needs computer hardware and software systems that allow it to track foreign students according to several data points, including such information as change of address and change of field of study. The computer systems developed by universities will, in turn, have to be compatible with the SEVIS system in order to report the foreign student information captured. "IT'S NOT REALISTIC/'Johnson says, to think that universities can meet the proposed deadline. "INS computer systems are not the most advanced," agrees lawyer Shirley Tang, who worked at INS for three years and is now an associate in the labor and employment practice of law firm Proskauer Rose, Newark, NJ. "There are always glitches with the software and other system components." Tang says the situation for foreign students is a bit of a guessing game right now, but she advises her clients to move forward despite the difficulties and uncertainties. She points out that one recent change in regulations requires foreign students to obtain a foreign student visa before they apply to U.S. schools. That requirement, Tang continues,
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makes it difficult for potential students to visit schools where they might want to con tinue their education and training. She says it's possible that INS will issue 30-day visas solely for the purpose of visiting schools and meeting with professors. For the time being, Tang adds, foreign students need to exercise caution in terms of understanding and complying with all INS regulations. A visa to enter the U.S. might be issued at the consular level in a foreign student's home country, she says, but the wrong answer to INS inspectors at the airport can result in rejection of a foreign student visa application. For all of the concern about SEVIS, IPASS, and the Enhanced Border Security & Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, which also requires greater scrutiny of foreign stu dents, the full impact on foreign student admissions is very unclear. The new review processes—individually or together—could result in bottlenecks or lead to greater ef ficiency in the handling of foreign student, visiting scholar, and exchange student visas. Many institutions, for now, report in creased applications for foreign students who want to enroll at U.S. institutions in the fall semester. But "the scrutiny of for eign students is tremendous," says Adria L. Baker, director of the Office of Inter national Students & Scholars at Rice Uni versity "We can't say until fall how many people might be denied visas." Baker says some of the new regulations might bring less obvious changes, for ex ample, in how foreign students view her and her colleagues in international student services offices at other U.S. universities. Typically, she says, staff at international student offices are there to advocate for and help foreign students. Today Baker says, she faces a situation— especially with SEVIS — where she might be forced to report information about for eign students to INS that could threaten their status. She says she hopes that INS staffwill proveflexiblein dealing with stu dents as individual situations arise. Right now, Baker continues, getting for eign student visas and getting into the U.S. is taking longer, and people are getting stuck more often as they make their way through various security clearances. Al ready, she says, foreign students and visit ing scholars who are here are often choos ing to stay put rather than risk not being able to get back in the U.S. should they vis it their home country or another country "There are so many hoops to jump through," Baker says of the fast-changing situation for foreign students and schol ars. "You're in uncharted territory" • HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
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