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National Academies Helps Foreign Scholars
Foreign scientists seeking U.S. visas can now get help from the National Academies, a research and advisory group that comprises the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. Launched in May 2003, the group’s International Visitors Office Web site (www.nationalacademies.org/visas) offers country-by-country updates, advice about how to plan and register international meetings, and an online visa questionnaire that the group uses to help expedite cases and collect data on trends in visa applications.
As of January 2004, according to the National Academies, the questionnaire had helped the visitors’ office assist more than nine hundred applicants, with close to 70 percent of concluded cases ending positively. Visa processing remains slow, however, and is likely to remain so; wait times for successful visa applications currently average four to five months.
Scholars planning to host international meetings in the United States are advised by the visitors’ office to help preclude long delays by sending their guests personal letters of invitation along with normal conference documentation and to register large meetings with the U.S. State Department. Even with these precautions, the office warns, no one should expect successful visa processing in less than three months.
More prohibitive waits continue to dissuade foreign graduate students from entering the United States. According to a November 2003 survey of 328 higher education institutions in the United States conducted by several higher education groups, 64 percent report declining or flat enrollments of international students, with visa denials the leading cause cited by respondents.
The problems facing graduate students, who often find themselves unable to return for fall study following summer visits home, were among the chief factors prompting a response from the National Academies. “It became clear that the rules were changing rapidly and that the National Academies had to be more proactive in understanding the situation and in providing assistance wherever possible,” says Wendy White, a spokesperson for the visa help program. White notes that “AAUP members could play a large role in helping to articulate the security goals achieved through having an open research enterprise.” A simple step in this direction would be for any scholar who has experienced visa delays—or who knows of problems—to fill out the online visa questionnaire. Information gathered remains confidential and will help the National Academies’ continued negotiations with federal agencies.
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