The state of Tennessee grossed $125 million in fiscal year 2000 from foreign students attending universities in the state.
The University of Memphis currently enrolls about 900 people on student visas, not including their dependents, who can also attend the University on the independent person’s visa. At least 150 people on The U of M faculty and staff are here on visas.
However, some people who plan to attend school in the near future may not be allowed to change visa status in order to attend legally.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has implemented several new laws concerning international student visas that may affect the number of international students enrolled in American universities in the future.
“These new rules strike the appropriate balance between INS’s mission to ensure that our nation’s immigration laws are followed and stop illegal immigration and our desire to welcome legitimate visitors to the United States,” said James Ziglar, INS Commissioner.
“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.”
However, Arda Beskardes, immigration specialist at The U of M, said that the move is mostly a reaction due to press coverage of the events.
“In the future I think they will see that this was not a good idea,” Beskardes said. “It is not going to stop those whose intentions were to do wrong, but it will cause more obstacles for those who are trying to get an education.”
The INS has cited fighting terrorism as its motivation for implementing the new laws, given the recent reports that the terrorists who flew two jets into the World Trade Towers were issued student visas only after they had been enrolled in classes for a year.
Under the new laws, people who are waiting to change a tourist or business visa to a student visa cannot enroll in classes at a university until the visa has been effectively changed. Formerly, students could legally enroll in classes while their student visas were pending.
“The problem with this is that The University cannot ask a student who applies for admission for a visa or passport,” Beskardes said. “It’s against federal law because all public universities are equal opportunity institutions.”
Therefore, universities have no way to know if they are enrolling students who may be jeopardizing their visa status by enrolling.
A second change in INS policy is that when a person applies for a visa as a tourist or any other type of visa, they must declare when they enter the United States that they plan to become a student in the future. If they do not declare it upon entry, they will not be allowed to change their visa status once they enter the country, which means they will have to return to their home country to apply for a student visa.
The INS has promised to reduce its turnaround time for a change of visa status from 10 months to 30 days in order to make up for the third policy amendment, which has reduced the time a person can legally stay in the United States while waiting for a visa change from six months to 30 days.
At The U of M, the number of international students planning to enroll for the fall is hard to determine because people apply to several schools before they know where they are accepted, according to Clara Nunis, international student adviser. However, she said that only about 15 to 20 percent of the students at The U of M on visas come on tourist visas first and attempt to change their visa once they get to the United States.
