February 01, 2005

The United States is still “a premiere destination for student visa applicants,” and the rate of average visa issuance process has gone down from 74 days to 14 days, while 97 percent of visit visa applicants get visas within two to three days, US officials told a briefing on Thursday.

They referred to a State Department fact sheet on the subject and the measures put in place to ensure improvement in visa processing. For Pakistan, 8,123 and 7,325 student visas were issued in 2002-03 and 2003-04.

The officials said it was “absolutely incorrect” to suggest that Muslim or Arab students were discouraged or not issued visas.

“The statistics prove otherwise. America is still a welcoming society with open borders policy, and our policies are not country-specific,” they said.

The Opportunity and Responsibility: The International Student Visa Process in the post-9/11 World briefing was made by Michael Garcia, assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement, Department of Homeland Security; Patricia Harrison, assistant secretary for education and cultural affairs, Department of State and Janice Jacobs, deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs, Department of State.

They said the UK attracted 270,000 foreign students in 2004 while the number of those coming to US was double then that.

“The 9/11 disaster has required security checks to ensure that those with dubious character cannot enter the US, but the 2.2 percent of applicants are put to security checks,” the officials said. They said the US wanted more and more students to study at American schools.

The officials said that the US did not prescribe subjects for admissions as it was up to the applicants to choose subjects themselves. The total student enrolment in the US during 2002-03 and 2003-04 were 12,853,627 and 13,383,553.

Figures show that while two of the four leading places of origin of international students from Asia have seen a decrease in 2003-2004, India, China, Korea and Japan continue to represent a growing concentration in international student enrollments in US higher education. The students from the leading four places of origin, all in Asia, are 415 of all international students. app

Source : http://www.dailytimes.com.pk