The Student Visa Loophole
ORCHOWSKI, MARGARET
The Student Visa Loophole Pretending to be a student is still an easy way for a terrorist to enter the country. BY MARGARET ORCHOWSKI In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Congress passed and...
...No matter where they study or for how long, foreign students are technically required to go home after they graduate or withdraw from school...
...One of the highest overall percentages of foreigners is at Columbia University, where 17.6 percent of the students were foreigners in 2001...
...What's more, even when fully implemented, the new provisions will not address the most common abuse: They will not solve the problem of tracking foreign "students" who are not study-ing—who never show up to register, who withdraw from their courses, or who graduate from school but stay in the country...
...The INS is aware that its lists are outdated...
...In April 2002, the INS announced a significant tightening of the rules: Foreign tourist visas, previously issued for up to six months, would be limited to 30 days and could no longer be exchanged for student visas...
...Most, in fact, come to the United States in the first place hoping to stay...
...Oh that's not a problem," says Ambassador Lalit Mansingh of India (the largest exporter of students to the United States, whose numbers shot up 22 percent in 2001, surpassing the previous leader, China...
...That means either providing a way to convert a foreign student visa into a permanent immigration visa, or making clear to all foreign students that their permits are good for the duration of their studies, after which they will be required to go home...
...For various reasons, they won't be...
...My gut feeling is 50 percent," said one foreign student adviser when pressed...
...Foreign student administrators and advisers insisted: We are not policemen...
...Happily for the overstayers, of all the countries hosting foreign students, the United States is the most lax about tracking them and imposing any penalty on employers who hire them illegally...
...This information was not previously computerized, which is one reason few colleges expect to make the SEVIS deadline of January 30, according to the American Council of Education...
...No one knows how many foreigners are enrolled at the trade schools authorized to issue I-20 permits...
...tions have minimal entrance requirements, and they eagerly recruit foreign students...
...College development and alumni offices have the databases and proven skills to track down alumni when it suits their fundraising purposes: Why not insist that they apply those skills to finding overstayers...
...At the University of California at Santa Barbara, for example, foreigners make up 5 percent of students overall, but 22 percent in the graduate division and 52 percent in engineering...
...And the directors of the INS and the Consular Service both resigned in 2002 and have yet to be replaced...
...The information to be shared is basic: essentially, name, address on campus, program of study, date of intended graduation, change of address while registered, date of termination...
...And even if they did, the system could not function properly because the INS's new SEVIS computers are not compatible with the new computers of the U.S...
...and of the 48 foreigners convicted of terrorist acts on American soil since the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, 8 had held student visas...
...Under the foreign student permit, they are allowed to work legally for a year (sometimes more, depending on the field and the work they find) after each degree or course of study, at a job that qualifies as "practical training...
...colleges and universities, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE), a 6.4 percent increase over the previous year...
...Many of the world's pro-democracy leaders have ties to the United States because they studied here...
...In the age of the computer, the mechanics of finding people whose visas have expired ought to be relatively straightforward...
...These institutions include not only the infamous flight schools and the language schools just mentioned, but also business colleges and training institutions for trades like haircut-ting and bartending...
...Says Christopher Bentley, INS student visa spokesman, "We expect that in the future, the total number of institutions approved by the INS to issue the I-20 foreign student permit will be about 8,000...
...We have plenty of students in India to replace those who come here...
...But the really discouraging news is that even if all these temporary obstacles were overcome and SEVIS were fully up and running, it would not provide for the tracking of overstayers, the "students" who are not in school...
...To a great degree, it worked...
...Only one of the schools could be found at the listed address...
...Two of the September 11 hijackers had entered the country on student visas...
...Although good government demands that the law not be systematically flouted—that our laws not be allowed to diverge sharply from realities on the ground—this is precisely what has come to pass with regard to foreign students' presence in the United States...
...The new laws as they affect entering foreign students are supposed to be fully implemented by January 30, 2003...
...The others were empty lots or storefronts, or were thought to have closed over ten years ago, or perhaps had never existed...
...consular officials in the student's country of origin will record electronically the school the student is to attend, (2) border officials will record electronically the student's entry into the United States and send that information electronically to the school, and (3) colleges will collect and share computerized data on their new foreign students with the INS and the State Department by January 30, 2003, all students by August 1, 2003...
...When the permit was instituted after World War II, the goal was to educate bright young students from war-torn and developing countries...
...Briefly, this Student and Exchange Visitors Information System (SEVIS) provides that (1) U.S...
...Suddenly Congress was willing to address the fact that American colleges and trade schools have become to the educated migrant what the southern border is to the uneducated one—a huge sieve for unintended immigration and the easiest way for foreign terrorists to enter and remain in the United States...
...some estimates are far higher...
...In the 2001-02 academic year, 583,000 foreigners were studying at some 3,500 accredited U.S...
...The educational institutions that benefit so handsomely from foreign students could be compelled, like it or not, to keep track of their students as long as they are in this country on permits arranged by the institutions...
...The U.S...
...And we depend on our students here for the money and the knowledge they send back...
...This could be required—if there were the national will to do so...
...Similarly, at the University of Virginia, foreigners make up 5 percent overall, 20 percent of graduate students, and 51 percent of engineering students...
...And the new automated system for tracking foreign students was enacted...
...In 1996, it created a pilot program for the collection of basic information about foreign students, but this met strong resistance from colleges and universities...
...To obtain a foreign student visa, all a foreign national has to do is be admitted full-time to a college or vocational school in the United States and offer some proof of financial self-support...
...If they failed to leave the United States after their studies, the host college could be required to cooperate with U.S...
...As a result, the number of authorized schools is expected to drop...
...Thousands of universities, colleges, community colleges, and trade schools host foreigners, who sometimes make up a significant share of the student body...
...bail bondsmen to track them down...
...An idea proposed in Congress last year that might spur cooperation is to require foreign students to post a return security bond before they leave home...
...It does not require either the student or the school to verify periodically the student's whereabouts and enrollment or employment...
...Under the new law, the INS must verify the eligibility of every educational institution that issues I-20 visas...
...Immigration and Naturalization Service lists a staggering 74,000, but this figure is clearly inflated...
...And at some trade schools—notably those that teach English as a foreign language, the largest single category—the breakdown is even more lopsided...
...Whatever you call them—overstayers, out-of-status visa holders, undocumented residents—these foreign-student-visa holders who are no longer studying are in this country illegally...
...others enter the United States on tourist visas and then apply, usually to community colleges and trade schools...
...Furthermore, both the INS (which oversees visas for trade schools) and the Consular Service (part of the State Department, and charged with interviewing all foreign nationals abroad who have been admitted to American colleges and universities) are in transition...
...BY MARGARET ORCHOWSKI In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Congress passed and the president signed several laws tightening procedures for tracking the more than half a million foreign students in the United States...
...Once an educational institution admits a student, the school itself issues the INS forms and works with the student to secure the appropriate I-20 student permit (F-1, M-1, or J-1), depending on the type and length of study...
...Brain drain...
...consulates in certain countries, it remains astonishingly easy to enter the United States as a foreign student and stay with impunity...
...Consular Service abroad, say sources at the council and the INS...
...As a result, well over a year after our national wakeup call, and despite closer scrutiny of visa applications by U.S...
...Again, to take Santa Barbara and Virginia as illustrative, their in-state tuition and fees were $3,853 and $4,980 a year respectively in 2002, while their out-of-state and foreign students paid $16,232 and $20,190...
...These instituMargaret Orchowski is writing a book about foreign students in the United States...
...No one knows how many foreign students overstay their visas...
...In March 2002, reporters for the Chicago Tribune tried to track down some 30 schools the INS had authorized to accept foreign students within a few blocks of the Tribune's offices...
...Foreign students are particularly numerous in engineering and graduate divisions...
...Some apply from abroad...
...We represent the foreign student, not the INS...
...Staying in the United States and working is very much encouraged by many of the students' countries of origin, especially developing countries...
...Harder to come by is the will to enforce our immigration laws...
...There is no limit to the number of foreign students a school can accept...
...One way or another, for the integrity of our institutions as well as for our national security, the laws and the reality need to be brought into alignment...
...Originally the foreign student visa was conceived as a temporary, nonimmigrant permit, time-limited for the duration of a study program plus a related work experience...
...This is handy, since many schools increasingly depend on foreign students for their revenue—especially struggling public institutions, where foreigners pay the higher out-of-state tuition...
...From time to time, Congress has tried to address the abuses...
...But few do...
...Those who take the maximum amount of time—who complete a non-degree program or two, then get a series of degrees, working after each one for the maximum permitted time plus extensions (which most foreign student advisers generously grant)— can legally stay in the United States on a foreign student permit for decades...
...But today, the education of foreign students has become big business...
...The Homeland Security Act of 2002 broke the INS into two, the Bureau of Border Security and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services...
...Even the number of such schools is unknown...
...If former students want to return to the United States to live and work, they can apply for immigration visas from their homelands like everyone else...
...teams of investigators under contract with the INS will examine each school's curriculum...
...Things finally started to change after September 11...
...And there is the option of punishing employers who hire undocumented workers and otherwise giving the INS the resources to enforce the requirement that foreign students leave after finishing their studies...
...It was assumed that when they returned home after their studies, they would provide leadership and brains for their countries, and would introduce American-style civic attitudes as well...
Vol. 8 • January 2003 • No. 19
