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EmailU.S. Commitment to International Education
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services
Janice L. Jacobs
U.S. Commitment to International Education
Student Center Auditorium
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, Illinois
November 7, 2005
7:00 p.m.
Introduction
It is a great pleasure for me to be here this evening and to have the opportunity to discuss with you the efforts of the Department of State in continuing to balance national security concerns with a commitment to maintaining the openness of the United States to international visitors. I want to offer special thanks to the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for inviting me here. It’s an honor to be sponsored by an organization working hard to make a difference in a rapidly changing world.
This is a particularly special evening for me, since it is a homecoming in so many ways. I graduated from SIU in 1968 with a degree in French after graduating from University High here in Carbondale. But my family’s relationship to the university extends far beyond my four years at SIU.
With both of my parents being born and raised in Southern Illinois, attending SIU became a family tradition. All six of us in the family -- my parents, two brothers and sister and I -- attended SIU. My father, Robert Jacobs, served as Dean of International Services in the 1960’s when SIU was emerging on the international scene. He helped acquire funding and develop programs to attract more international students to SIU. As a student worker at the Center for English as a Second Language, I got to know many of these students. Family connections to SIU extend beyond my immediate family members to include my cousin, Larry Dietz, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.
So, as you can see, I have longstanding ties to SIU and its community. Through my father’s work here and as an education officer with the Agency of International Development, I developed a love of travel and deep understanding of the value of international education and the many benefits that accrue from international exchange. I’m proud to be associated with SIU and its longstanding international traditions. Today, SIU Carbondale is in the top 30 in terms of international enrollment, with about 1,300 international students from more than 100 countries.
I hope your attendance here tonight indicates your interest in preserving what I think is this nation’s enduring commitment to supporting international education. That is certainly my objective in speaking to you tonight. I am here to discuss what the Department of State is doing to honor that commitment and how we work everyday to strike the proper balance in carrying out our policy of “Secure Borders, Open Doors.”
Let me begin by telling you a bit more about the Bureau I work in at the State Department, the Bureau of Consular Affairs. The Bureau is an organization of some 7,800 people working all around the world in over 200 embassies and consulates at which we adjudicate visa applications, as well as in our domestic operations. We are charged with the responsibility of determining who is qualified to receive a visa, and in doing so, we play a key role in enhancing U.S. border security while facilitating legitimate travel to the United States.
Before I flew out here, I read an article in the New York Times that discussed the ways in which China is improving its system of higher education in order to lure foreign scholars to its universities. China is making a concerted effort to attract eminent professors, and is investing in university infrastructure in an effort to transform its top universities into world-class institutions within a decade. The article quoted a high-ranking Chinese official as saying, “First-class universities increasingly reflect a nation’s overall power.” I was particularly interested in this article because China is one of the leading source countries of international students who choose to study in the United States. I was also impressed by China’s recognition of the importance of education to its future prosperity.
Certainly, the global market for higher education has become more competitive. There can be no question that the more than 4,000 institutes of higher learning in the United States are unmatched in terms of quality, accessibility, academic freedom and diversity. But global educational developments should serve as a call to action for those of us who appreciate the influence that youthful experiences in the United States can have on U.S. national interests – indeed on our national security.
The Context for U.S. Visa Policy
Part of the discussion of international education over the last few years has been a vocal and spirited debate about U.S. visa policy. There was a phenomenal period of growth in the number of foreign students studying in the U.S. between 1997 and 2001, when the number rose 21 percent from 481,280 to 582,996. During the three years that followed, the number of student visa applications dropped significantly. But the decrease was not as large as the overall drop in the total number of visas we issued to foreign visitors during this time. Clearly, there were a number of factors at work that influenced people making decisions about whether or not to travel to the U.S.
How much U.S. visa policy influenced these decisions is a matter of some discussion. As students and those involved in academia, you will be familiar with the importance of context. You can illustrate this point in virtually every field of academic study.
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 the United States and more than 90 foreign countries lost their lives. In the immediate aftermath of this terrible event, the U.S. Government moved quickly to shore up our nation’s border security and to 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.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is continuing the abiding tradition of welcoming visitors to the United States. Even before she took the oath of office to become our 66 th Secretary of State, she stated,
“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.”
Secure Borders/Open Doors
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 $93.7 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.
Worldwide, 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.
Here is another example of international exchange and its benefits to the United States. 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.
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:
King Abdullah, Jordan
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.
In fact, the Institute of International Education notes that more than 50 of the world leaders who have joined the coalition fighting terrorism around the world are alumni of the International Visitors Program.
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. The United States is strong in business, academia and scientific research because we attract talented people from the far reaches of the globe.
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.
And we encourage and value the presence of international students. 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 decided to spend their money elsewhere. We have probably lost their younger siblings, who will likely follow in the footsteps of an older brother or sister. Most importantly, 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 the United States today and in the future.
We Have Turned A Corner During the last three years of unprecedented change in visa practices, we have kept these students in mind. At the State Department, we are committed to turning the strength of our beliefs into the proof of our actions.
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 accept the status quo.
Each of our embassies overseas provide educational counseling services for college studies, including technical and vocational studies, to encourage foreign students to choose to further their education in the U.S.
We give priority to students and exchange visitors at all of our embassies and consulates when they apply for a visa. 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.
We have added to the resources dedicated to processing visas, creating 515 new consular positions since September 2001.
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 that 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 74 days for a MANTIS case. Today, the average processing time for a Mantis is 14 days, and we will continue to refine that process.
And I am very pleased to say that we were able to extend the validity of these Mantis clearances for students 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 show that the number of student visa applications we received increased by 7% during this past fiscal year (FY2005) and we actually issued 8.7% more student visas this year than we did last year.
A lot of this growth comes from areas of the globe where we have key relationships. Student visa issuances increased by almost 25% in China and 10% in India, the two largest source countries for U.S. international students. Student issuances nearly doubled in Saudi Arabia and increased by 15% in Turkey.
I can go on. In Korea, we issued almost 20% more student visas this year than last year. Most of our embassies and consulates in Europe with large student visa workloads report slight growth, as did our posts in the Western Hemisphere.
Many of you will be entering business fields after you graduate, so I would like to spend a moment discussing the importance of international business travel to the U.S. economy. For example, trade and investment flows between the U.S. and the European Union alone exceed $2.5 trillion a year. Expanded opportunities for travel to the U.S. can only strengthen and deepen economic and business relationships through increased personal contacts. As our economic relationships with other nations evolve, we are committed to supporting them 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. We try to expand visa reciprocity agreements with other nations so that we have the flexibility to issue visas that are valid for a longer period. For example, we negotiated 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 That Refute Misperceptions
The U.S. Institute for International Education compiles annual statistics that show that over 572,000 students were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities during the 2003-2004 academic year. I think it is important to note that U.S. institutions of higher learning account for one-third of the total worldwide. And we still host more international students than any other nation. That tells me that anything you might hear about the United States not welcoming foreign students is simply not true. The fact is that if you want to study in the United States, our door is open.
In the business and tourism realm, t he Department of Commerce keeps statistics on the number of international visitors traveling to the United States. Commerce has consistently noted double-digit growth in foreign travel to the U.S.month by month, in comparison with the same month last year. We hope that these statistics will continue in this encouraging direction, and that they will be mirrored by additional increases in student visa applications.
Visa procedures should not be perceived as a barrier to travel or to study in the United States. Outdated public perceptions regarding changes to visa processing could not be more different from the reality. To those of you who have already displayed excellent judgment in deciding to study in the United States, I say congratulations – and thank you. I congratulate you because I honestly believe you can make no better choice than to study in the United States. My thanks go out to you because you have chosen to travel far from friends and family – to leave the familiar behind – so that you can pursue your dreams in my country.
If you are an American student, I hope you will take advantage of the wealth of opportunities available to you simply by having students from other nations attending this fantastic university. And I also hope that you consider studying abroad at some point. It is challenging, enriching and yes, fun. And perhaps it might even lead to a career in the Foreign Service.
I believe firmly that there is no substitute for personal engagement when you think something is important. And international education and exchanges are important both outbound and inbound.
If I leave you with any message from my visit here, I hope it is that America’s welcome mat is out. It always has been and it always should be. The Department of State is working hard to support what we want to be a resurgence of international students, exchange visitors, scientists and business people traveling to the U.S. to ensure that our interaction with the rest of the world continues to be a conversation, not a monologue.
Thank you.
