U.S. Loosens Visa Protocol

The United States will loosen visa restrictions for Chinese scholars and students studying in America, the State Department announced last month, giving in to the demands of universities, like Harvard, that have lobbied for years to see the policy change.

State Department Spokesman Steve Pike said he hoped the change would make it easier for students from China to study in the U.S. “We generally want this process to be as easy as possible,” he said.

Previously, Chinese students’ visas expired after six months or two entries into the country, inhibiting short-term travel. Since June 20, however, students have been able to receive visas that are good for one year.

China holds American students studying in China to the same standards.

“We expect that these changes will facilitate travel and visa issuance even further, and [we] applaud the changes,” said Sharon Ladd, director of Harvard’s International Office, adding that there had been a 70 percent drop in the number of visa delays last fall, compared to the previous year.

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, legislators on both sides of the political spectrum advocated tightening the visa-approval process for foreign students hoping to study in the U.S.—particularly those from countries like China, which has high immigration rates. This sparked an outcry from academics, who said such a policy would inhibit their ability to conduct research.

“Anybody studying Chinese history and society, as we do in our department, really depends on back-and-forth movement,” said Higginson Professor of History and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations Philip A. Kuhn ’54. “We have a huge interest in maintaining these ties.”

The policy has also affected students. In 2003, more than a dozen students were stranded as their visas awaited approval. Some of those students never made it to Harvard at all.

“I’ve known of people who were rejected student visas and can’t come to study, even though they were accepted,” said Alvin Y. Yu ’08, who is from Hong Kong but attended high school in the U.S.

Pike, who said he was not aware of any formal lobbying efforts on the part of the University, said the State Department had been working with the Chinese government for more than a year to finalize the arrangement. He said he could not predict whether the new policy would encourage more study abroad by either Chinese or American students.

China currently sends more students to Harvard than any foreign country except Canada. A total of 361 Chinese students attended the University this past school year—a number that has risen steadily since 1998, when they totaled 227.

The new policy comes after University President Lawrence H. Summers wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge ’67 in April, 2004, in which he argued that visa restrictions and other barriers to international students could precipitate a braindrain of foreign graduate students. This in turn, he said, could hurt America’s position at the forefront of technological and academic innovation.

“The drop in the number of applications from Chinese and Indian students is particularly striking,” Summers wrote in the letter. “Applications from Chinese students alone declined as much as 40 percent in some of our graduate programs.”

Kevin Casey, the University’s senior director of federal and state relations, added that the old policy made it particularly difficult for students to travel home during the holidays—an observation supported by Chinese students at the College.

“I certainly welcome the new system. Under the old one, if I decide to go back home for the Christmas recess, then I need to reapply for the visa. Given that the Christmas recess is so short, this is really annoying,” Yuanchen Zhu ’08, who lives in Shangai, wrote in an e-mail.

Zhu added that although visa holders are better off under the new policy, it is still difficult for some to acquire a U.S. entry visa.

Casey said Harvard would continue to work with the State Department to facilitate international exchange.

But Kuhn said more must be done to restore America’s image in the eye of the rest of the world.

“It’s not just a question of visas—I think it’s an image problem as well. We’re seen as sort of phobic about foreigners,” Kuhn said. “Bad images tend to linger, and we are going to pay a price for this so-called security business.”

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.