>> U.S. Immigration Officials Announce New Rules on Student
Visas -- The Chronicle of Higher Education

By SARA HEBEL
Tuesday, April 9, 2002
Washington

Foreign citizens who are visiting the United States and want to
study at an American college now will have to wait to begin
their course work until they obtain a student visa, the U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service announced on Monday.

The new policy takes effect immediately under an agency rule
that will be published in the Federal Register within a few
days. Previously, foreign citizens who were in the United
States on tourist or business visas, and who had applied to
change their visa status to a student visa, could start college
courses while immigration officials processed such requests.

The immigration agency said on Monday that it will try to
expedite the review of such applications, aiming to make a
decision about whether to award a change in visa status within
30 days of receiving a request. Foreign citizens who already
have begun college courses at an American campus while awaiting
a decision on such an application will be allowed to continue
their studies.

Federal officials and others have worried that potential
terrorists could enter the country on a tourist or business visa
and be able to extend their stay without strict scrutiny by
applying to change their visa status to a student visa.

Immigration officials on Monday also proposed other changes that
would help deal with that concern. Among them is a proposal that
would prevent people who enter the country on business or
tourist visas from changing those visas to student visas unless
they had stated at the time of their arrival an intention to
study in the United States. Federal inspectors would have to
note on the person's arrival and departure record that he or she
was a "prospective student."

The immigration agency is accepting public comment on all of the
rules changes it announced or proposed on Monday.

In a news release, immigration officials argued that the changes
would ensure that foreign students "will have received the
appropriate security checks before beginning a course of study."

"While we recognize that the overwhelming majority of people who
come to the United States as visitors are honest and
law-abiding, the events of September 11 remind us that there
will always be those who seek to cause us harm," James W.
Ziglar, the INS commissioner, said in a written statement.

Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public
affairs at the American Council on Education, said that he
"fully supports" the changes announced Monday. The new rules
should not be problematic for colleges and students as long as
the INS follows through on the 30-day timetable for reviewing
applications, he added.

The regulations, Mr. Hartle said, "bring reason and clarity to
what has been an open-ended and confusing process. As of today,
the government's rules are simple: If you are here as a tourist,
have a good time. But if you want to go to school, you need INS
approval before you go to class."

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