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EmailRemarks at Beijing University in Beijing, China
Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty
Remarks to University Students, Bejing University
Beijing, People's Republic of China
March 2, 2005 3:00 P.M.
Introduction
It is a great pleasure for me to be here today and have the opportunity to discuss with you the efforts of the Department of State in continuing to maintain the openness of the United States to international visitors.
In the course of my career at the Department of State, I have had the opportunity to visit the People's Republic of China on several occasions and the privilege of traveling to a number of different parts of China across more years than I care to admit.
On one of the most memorable trips, in March 1987, I accompanied Secretary of State George Shultz on several stops of his groundbreaking visit to five cities. Arriving in advance to prepare for the Secretary's visit allowed me to spend several days in Beijing and see for the first time the Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People and so many other compelling and historic sights. It was my good luck to also go to Jinan, the sacred mountain of Tai Shan, and Qufu, birthplace of one of the preeminent thinkers in the history of mankind.
Although it took me a while, I returned to China ten years later with Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Although I had heard about China's vibrant and growing economy, I was frankly unprepared for the level of change I noted: new construction, tremendous energy, cars! On this visit I have had the great honor and pleasure of being able to return to some of the same places I visited previously and again have been impressed by the remarkable changes taking place in China today.
The Context For U.S. Visa Policy
As students, you will be familiar with the importance of context. You can illustrate this point in virtually every field of academic study. Take history, for example. With over four thousand years of recorded history, you more than perhaps any other nation appreciate the value of historical context.
The context for today's U.S. visa policy is, quite simply, September 11, 2001. Our nation changed irrevocably on that day when citizens from my country and more than 90 foreign countries lost their lives. From my office in the State Department, I could see the Pentagon smoldering for days after the attacks. In the immediate aftermath, the U.S. Government moved quickly to shore up our nation's border security and reassure American citizens and international visitors alike that our nation was safe and secure. After conducting a top-to-bottom review of visa procedures, we still work ceaselessly to make sure that we have in place as strong a shield as possible against those who would do us harm.
U.S. immigration policy must also be considered in a broader context, as a product of our history and our common ideals. America is a nation of immigrants, and has always welcomed visitors from all over the globe. We are a “nation of nations.” Our new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has confirmed she will continue the abiding tradition of welcoming visitors to the United States. Even before she took the oath of office, she stated in her confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate,
“Our interaction with the rest of the world must be a conversation, not a monologue, and America must remain open to visitors and workers and students from around the world. We do not and will not compromise our security standards, yet if our public diplomacy efforts are to succeed, we cannot close ourselves off from the rest of the world.”
It is our fundamental commitment to protecting the openness of the United States that underpins our approach to border security and immigration. Although security must always be our first priority, we work every day to see that access to our country is not impeded for those whose presence we encourage and value.
Secure Borders/Open Doors
I have spent 23 years in the U.S. Foreign Service dedicated to precisely this conviction. But it is not only the public servant in me that speaks in support for international student education and exchange. It's also the kid who grew up in the melting pot of New York City. It's the student who learned at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service the value of diverse views offered by students and faculty drawn from all over the world. It is most definitely the American diplomat who has seen with her own eyes the light of understanding and recognition spread by personal interactions between Americans and citizens of other nations.
I firmly believe that security and openness are mutually reinforcing. It is in our own national interest to continue to encourage people to visit the United States. The economic benefits to the United States generated by international tourism are impressive. Travel and tourism contributed $93.5 billion to the U.S. economy in 2004. One out of every eight civilian employees in the United States is engaged directly or indirectly in the travel and tourism industry. The U.S. is preeminent in the field of higher education and gained that standing with the contributions of countless students and academics from all over the world. International students attending U.S. colleges and universities account for an additional $13 billion in revenues each year. Beyond the economic benefits, we as a nation gain so much from the people around the world who visit our beautiful country, study at our premiere colleges and universities, work in our dynamic business sector, and conduct research at the leading medical and scientific facilities in the world.
State Department-sponsored international exchange programs, including Fulbright scholarships and International Visitor Grants, offer a particularly compelling illustration of the impact of academic exchanges. The Fulbright program in China was the first in the world, established in 1947. Although terminated two years later, it was re-established in 1979 and the 2004-05 academic year represents the 25 th anniversary of the Fulbright program in China.
Approximately 100 grantees, roughly 60 Americans and 40 Chinese, participate annually. U.S. professors lecture in various social science and humanities fields and Chinese researchers and graduate students visit the U.S. to conduct research on various aspects of American studies. Notable Fulbright alumni from China include:
- Min Wei Fang: Vice President of Beijing University;
- Lin Gui Jun: Vice President of the University of International Business and Economics;
- Ren Xiao Ping: China's Ambassador to Antigua; and
- Su Ge: the Minister Counselor for Governmental Affairs and Congressional Liaison at China's Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Since the Fulbright program's inception, over 255,000 people, some 96,400 from the United States and 153,600 from other countries, have participated in Fulbright exchanges.
The Department of State's International Visitor Program promotes mutual understanding and closer ties among countries and people by bringing current and future leaders of other nations to the United States for targeted education opportunities. More than 110,000 international visitors have participated in this program. The international visitor leadership program in the People's Republic of China is the largest in East Asia and one of the largest in the world. During this year and last, 166 Chinese will have participated in these programs. Worldwide, more than 200 alumni of U.S. exchange programs have become heads of state or government, including many names that will be familiar to you:
Anwar Sadat, Egypt
Indira Gandhi, India
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan
Tony Blair, UK
Kim Dae-Jung, South Korea
Oscar Arias Sanchez, Costa Rica
Ricardo Lagos, Chile
Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia – and most of his cabinet
Americans pride themselves in being hospitable, in being friendly neighbors, even if the “neighbors” are halfway across the world. And we like to keep in touch. We know from experience that the personal and professional relationships that are developed during educational and cultural exchanges form a foundation of understanding and lasting partnerships, not just between young people, but between nations, between societies, and between cultures.
We also believe that the United States is strong in business, academia and scientific research because we attract talented people from the far reaches of the globe. That enriches my nation in many ways. I traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan, last year. During my visit, the U.S. Ambassador relayed to me that her British colleagues had experienced an incredible increase in student visa applications in one year – from 2,000 to 6,000. To me, that means that the United States lost the opportunity to host and educate 4,000 Pakistani students. This is an unconscionable loss.
The loss of even one qualified student is one too many. When a student goes elsewhere, we haven't only lost the student. We have lost his or her parents, who have clearly decided to spend their money elsewhere. We have likely lost younger siblings, who surely will follow in the footsteps of an older brother or sister. Most important to me, though, we have lost the chance for a student to see the wonders of America through his or her own eyes, rather than through the prism of a foreign news-media outlet. And when that student grows up and becomes a social, civic, political, or perhaps religious leader at home, we want that leader to have had the quintessential experience of life on an American college or university campus. A young person's positive experience in America strengthens and enriches our nation today and in the future.
Turning the Corner
During the last three years of unprecedented change in visa practices, we have kept these students in mind. At the State Department, I lead a team of people – some 7,800 strong at over 200 locations around the world, who are committed to turning the strength of our beliefs into the proof of our actions. I am certainly aware of the criticism aimed at the changes in visa processing that we and other agencies have implemented since September 11 as discouraging foreign students, exchange visitors, and business travelers from choosing to visit the United States. We have made a concerted effort to undertake the most sweeping changes in a way that mitigates their impact on the legitimate traveler.
For the last two years, we have instructed all of our overseas posts to give priority to students and exchange visitors. Our embassies and consulates have implemented this requirement in a number of ways and have been very successful in getting student applicants appointments in a timely way. Visa applicants now have more information to plan their travel since we began posting current visa appointment wait times and processing times on our internet website at: www.travel.state.gov . In fact, we overhauled the website to make it more user-friendly and to provide additional resource material. Having more information about the process helps visa applicants be better prepared when they attend an interview.
Initially, some of the changes we made resulted in processing delays, and the delays were particularly troublesome in the spring and summer of 2002. However, it has never been an option for us to simply shrug our shoulders, cite border security and accept the status quo.
We have added to the resources dedicated to processing visas, even in spite of a significant drop over the last two years in the number of visa applications we have received. We have created more than 350 new consular positions since September 2001 and have already requested funding for an additional 121 consular officer positions during this budget cycle.
Increased staffing is only one way in which we have increased the predictability and efficiency of the visa process. We also invested heavily in automating outdated systems. Almost all of the visa applications we receive – some 97 percent – are processed in one or two days. For the two-and-a-half percent of visa applicants who, for national security reasons, are subject to extra screening, we have streamlined the screening process so even this small percentage of the overall number of applicants can expect an answer promptly. Some of these are the special clearances due to the applicant's involvement in a sensitive scientific field – which I know have been a cause for concern among Chinese student visa applicants. We refer to these as the Mantis cases.
The results of our efforts are very positive. A year ago, the average processing time was about 75 days for a Mantis case, and I'm sure you heard stories about cases that took even longer than that. Today, the average processing time for a Mantis is less than 14 days, and we will continue to refine that process.
And I am very pleased to announce that the validity of these clearances for students has been extended from one year, in most cases, to the entire length of the academic program. This means that, if a student receives a clearance, it remains valid as long as he or she remains in the same program, up to a maximum of four years.
It is important to understand that, although there have been changes to the way in which visas are processed , the eligibility requirements have not changed. The stories you might have heard that “America no longer welcomes foreign students” are simply not true. In fact, our own statistics comparing visa applications in October 2003 through January 2004 with October 2004 through January 2005 show that the percentage of student visa applicants who received visas is increasing.
Many of you will be entering business fields after you graduate, so I would like to spend a moment discussing the importance of Chinese business travel to the U.S. economy. China is the third largest trading partner of the United States and our sixth largest export market. China also has the fastest rate of growth of any nation over the past quarter century, which means expanded opportunities for American and Chinese companies. Such a dynamic relationship can only be strengthened and deepened through increased personal contacts – both here and in the United States. As our economic relationship evolves, we are committed to supporting it through the facilitation of legitimate business travel.
I am happy to say that our focus on students has not worked to the detriment of other visitors, such as business travelers. On the contrary, many of the changes we have implemented have universal benefits. And we were recently able to negotiate an agreement with the Chinese government that lengthens the validity of visas for tourists and business travelers from six months to one year. We have instructed our embassies and consulates to establish mechanisms to expedite appointments for legitimate business travelers with urgent needs, students and exchange visitors, and applicants seeking emergency medical care. Consular sections worldwide are working diligently and imaginatively to facilitate business and tourist travel.
Encouraging Signs
The U.S. Institute for International Education compiles annual statistics that show that once again, Chinese students are among the leaders in international enrollment in U.S. institutions of higher education. During the 2003-2004 academic year, there were 61,765 Chinese students enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States. Among all of the nations in the world, only India sends more students to the United States. That tells me that anything you might hear about the United States not welcoming Chinese students, or foreign students in general, is simply not true. The fact is that if you want to study in the United States, our door is open and we will review your application with the courtesy and consideration that you deserve.
In the business and tourism realm, t he Department of Commerce released its most recent statistics on February 7, announcing that 2.8 million international visitors traveled to the United States in November 2004, an increase of almost 3 percent over November 2003. Arrivals from January to November 2004 totaled 35 million, an increase of 11 percent over the same period the previous year. This means that the United States has experienced growth in visitation for 14 successive months.
I'm here to assure you that visa procedures should not be perceived as a barrier to travel to or study in the United States. Outdated public perceptions regarding changes to visa processing couldn't be more different from the reality. The Department of State is working hard to support the resurgence of international students, exchange visitors, scientists and business people applying for – and receiving – visas in a timely and efficient manner. I want you to know that, as we would say in the United States, our welcome mat is out and I sincerely hope you will consider study in the United States.
