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New Visa Status Created for Border-Crossing Students
Late last year, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) established a new nonimmigrant student visa status for Mexican and Canadian students who commute daily across the U.S. border to attend college or vocational programs. In the past, such students routinely used general visitor visas, but after the events of September 11, 2001, the INS stopped that practice and began requiring daily commuter students to meet the same demands as other foreign students. One such requirement mandates full-time enrollment, an impossibility for many border commuter students who work full time and attend classes at night. Another criterion makes students demonstrate financial resources sufficient to cover all living and school expenses during the anticipated period of study, which is irrelevant for those living in another country.
"It is in the interest of the United States to allow our neighbors to take courses . . . at our nation's colleges and schools along the border," said representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona, who sponsored the act that created the new visa classification, on his Web site.
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