Student
visas harder to obtain
By Yi-Fang Vicky Lin and Yoshinori Okada
On-line Forty-Niner
With
a continuous tension between the United
States and Middle Eastern countries after
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks last year,
some Middle Eastern and Asian students are
facing difficulties in obtaining their student
visas to the United States.
The number of Middle Eastern students enrolled
at Cal State Long Beach has shown a 30 percent
decrease this fall semester. The total enrollment
number for fall 2001 was 212 students, compared
with 148 students this year, according to
Paul Lewis, director of the Center for International
Education.
“We continue to hear that Middle Eastern
students are experiencing delays in the
processing of their visas at U.S. consulates
abroad,” Lewis said.
While the same delays among Chinese
students are also noted, the total enrollment
number of Chinese students at CSULB does
not show a drop, Lewis said.
Many students have suffered a delay, and
in some cases, a denial of their visa applications
due to tightened scrutiny on personal information.
One hundred fifty students who faced visa
denial by the U.S. consulates held a protest
in Malaysia on Sept. 17, claiming they are
not terrorists. A week later, Chinese students
who were refused U.S. visas held a similar
protest in China insisting they just want
to study in the United States. These students
had their visa applications rejected for
no apparent reason, according to Reuters.
“Back home in my country, India, when they
just go to get visas, they are not getting
visas that easily like the way they were
getting visas two, three years before,”
said Karthikeyan Srikanthan, a graduate
electrical engineering student. The number
of student visa applications in India has
increasingly been denied, he added.
Besides the denial of visa issuance, the
prolonged process has posed a threat to
international students in the United States.
“I need a new visa that takes a long time,
between six to 14 weeks,” said Bader Alrabiah,
a junior mechanical engineering major from
Saudi Arabia. “If I go back [in] summer,
I can’t go to summer courses. If I go back
in Christmas, I may not come back in spring.”
One student said he consented to the U.S.
policy.
“I think it’s tough for many students to
suffer this kind of act but the United States
have the right to feel safe,” said Abdulaziz
Al-Roomi, a senior computer science major
from Kuwait. “I think it’s just a matter
of time. A year or two, after that it will
be normal. Overall, it’s just their rights
to what they are doing. Especially many
countries, all countries like China, Japan
and even Europe have the same problem, so
we can say that they are fair.”
The best way for international students
to cope with tighter scrutiny is to allow
themselves more time in applying for visas,
Lewis said.
“There is not a great deal that any university
office can do to assist students in speeding
up the processing of their visas at U.S.
consulates abroad.” Lewis said.
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