The International Student Visa Process in the Post-9/11 World

MR. DENIG: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. Welcome, also, to journalists assembled in our New York Foreign Press Center.

We are pleased at the beginning of another academic semester to be able to present you with a briefing on international student visas and the process of students applying and coming to the United States to study. We thought this would be a very opportune time to schedule such a briefing for the benefit of the many students who like to come to the United States pursue their studies here.

For our briefing today we have a number of experts. Our first expert, on your far left, is Patricia Harrison, the Assistant Secretary of State for Education and Cultural Affairs. Then in the middle we have Michael Garcia, the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in charge of immigration and customs enforcement. And then to your far right we have Janice Jacobs, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Affairs, also from the Department of State.

Each one of our briefers will have a short opening statement. After that, we'll be glad to take your questions.

Pat.

MS. HARRISON: Thank you, Paul, and, as Paul said, I'm Pat Harrison and I run the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. We manage approximately 30,000 academic, professional and cultural exchanges annually, including the prestigious Fulbright Program. And we now have almost 800,000 alumni of all of these programs.

Let me just say as we respond to the disaster in South Asia and Southeast Asia, that we are in touch with our Fulbright commissions throughout the regions, and so many of our exchange participants have been affected by the tsunami -- their families, their friends; so we are also directing offers of help from alumni of our exchange programs. And the point I want to make is that these are men and women who've studied and lived in the region, and they care very, very deeply about the people who are suffering; or, they happen to be citizens of these countries.

And this just underscores that those who come to this country to study, or Americans who study abroad, are people, for the most part, who really have a strong desire to contribute to their communities and to society. And we want them to continue to choose the United States as their destination for a premier education. Personally, I’m very inspired daily by those I meet who come to this country to study. They are here for only one purpose, and that is to learn and then to take what they have learned back to their own communities. As one Fulbrighter from Iraq said, “You have given me the keys to the gates of my future. I will study hard and go back to my country and create the perfect society.” And we hope he will be able to do that.

The Department of State is committed to increasing academic and scientific exchanges, and I'm very, very proud that my bureau started the first-ever government-sponsored high school exchange for young people from the Arab and Muslim world. We started with 170 students last year, and by '06, we hope to have 1,000 high schoolers living with American families, interacting within communities throughout our country.

And in addition to what they are learning, they're also impacting Americans and giving Americans a view to a world beyond our borders. Through our Partnerships For Learning initiative, we're bringing to this country the first group of undergraduate students from the Middle East. These are very, very bright young men and women who may not have the wherewithal to come and study here, and through P-for-L, as we call Partnerships for Learning, they're able to do so.

This year's Open Doors Report underscores that we must continue to let students and scholars know that the American welcome mat is truly out, and we want them to choose America as a place to study. Our U.S. institutions of higher education continue to be, by a very large margin, the leading destination for international students.

But the fact is that these young people truly represent the best and the brightest, the hope for the future, and every country wants them for very good reason. In terms of our visa procedures, we're working on two compatible tracks: secure borders and open doors. We want both the American people and those who come to this country to be safe, and we want people of goodwill to continue to choose the United States as the place to study.

Since September 11th, 2001, working with our colleagues in both the public and private sectors, we have made great strides in speeding up the visa process. The Department has invested in systems and staffing, working closely with our partners in the government to increase transparency, efficiency and predictability of the non-immigrant visa process. And I believe visa processing has turned a corner.

What we're working to do now is turn a corner on perceptions that may have been based on the past. We're doing this through many avenues of communication. Our consular officers are working with overseas educational advising centers to get the word out of perspective students. Our ambassadors are writing op-eds in their countries, reinforcing the message that the United States wants international students, and again, reinforcing the fact that the United States is the premier destination to study.

And our more than 500 educational advising centers worldwide are promoting study in the U.S. And of course, our Education USA website welcomes prospective students and it guides them through the application process.

As you know, the President and the Secretary [of State] have underscored the importance of international education and reaching out to prospective students and scholars. And our welcome mat is bigger than ever before.

And now, I’d like to turn this over to the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Customs and Immigration, Michael Garcia, our partner in our effort to provide security for both visitors and citizens.

Michael.

MR. GARCIA: Thanks very much. As you heard, I’m the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE, as we call it. Within my agency, we have the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, as it's well known. We administer the SEVIS system, and at ICE we are also responsible for the enforcement component of that system.

Our overall aim at the Department of Homeland Security and ICE has been to restore integrity to the U.S. immigration system and to close down vulnerabilities that have developed over the years and have been exposed most notably by terrorists coming into this country. And of course, the most tragic example of that exploitation was Hani Hanjour, a 9/11 hijacker who came into the United States on a student visa, never attended school, and one year later piloted the plane into the Pentagon, killing approximately 200 people.

Many of those hijackers would come under additional scrutiny today through the various programs we have at the Department of Homeland Security and various procedures. One of those programs, a very important program, is SEVIS; and it has been one of the most successful. It has strengthened and automated a system for tracking student visas that a mere three years ago was a paper process.

SEVIS is an ongoing process, an ongoing procedure, and we have had many challenges, most notably in the technical area. We've moved quickly in the past to overcome those challenges and make the system work for all the participants, including our consular officials, partners, inspectors at the ports of entry, students and school administrators.

And we've made progress. One way to look at that progress is to look back on the early days in August of 2003. We were getting thousands of inquiries, complaints, and problems with the system. In August of 2004, we received [only] 71 such calls. This is because of an awareness on the part of the participants of the requirements, cooperation between the public and private sector entities involved, and technical improvements we've put into this system. Those technical improvements continue, many of them based on feedback we receive from our partners in this system.

We're now about to begin the first 2005 semester, and we take that as an opportunity to encourage all the participants in this system to review the requirements and to make sure that records are updated and accurate. We urge students and schools, encourage students and schools to take the time to do this now and avoid unnecessary delays for legitimate students and help us focus on those real violators, violators who may, in fact, pose a risk to our national security or our public safety.

We're working with out partners in the State Department and in Customs and Border Protection to minimize delays and disruptions for legitimate student visitors. We look to responsible students and schools to comply with the program's requirements. So students should talk to their contact officials at the schools and universities, update their information, visit the ICE website -- www.ice.gov -- and get more information on the system requirements. By doing this, we will be able to be in a position to welcome each of the estimated 200,000 students who will be arriving in the United States in the next few weeks.

Thank you very much.

MR. DENIG: Thank you very much. We'll now ask Deputy Assistant Secretary Janice Jacobs to make a statement.

MS. JACOBS: Thank you and good morning. It's a pleasure for me to be here to have an opportunity to reemphasize some of the messages that you have already heard from my colleagues, Assistant Secretary Harrison, and also Assistant Secretary Garcia. I want all of you to understand that the State Department is very committed to fostering international exchange.

We want students to come here to study. We still believe that the United States is the premier destination for most foreign students. Certainly, the quality of our schools and of the faculty that we have here in the United States, I think, continues to attract a large number of foreign students. What we don't want is for visas to be seen as a barrier somehow preventing foreign students from coming here.

There have been a lot of stories in the press about delays in visa processing and other visa-related problems. And I want to talk a little bit about that today. But what I really want to stress with you are the number of improvements that we've made to student visa processing, in particular, over the past few months.

As you know, we have made a number of changes in our visa processing after 9/11. And I'm sure you're very familiar with most of those changes, the changes that include fingerprinting, applicants requiring more interviews, something we had to do when we started to do the finger scanning of applicants, we needed to bring people into our embassies and consulates to do that. And so, those are some, I think, of the most significant changes. For students, we have made a number of special changes, and I wanted you to be aware of those. Starting about two years ago, we went out with instructions to all of our visa processing posts -- over 200 posts that process visas overseas -- to tell them that when they set appointments for visa interviews, we wanted them to give priority to students and exchange visitors. And I'm very happy to report that at all of our posts they are now doing that. So even if you have a wait of, say, two to three weeks for some visa applicants, students will always be able to get in faster than that. All of our posts have put in place special procedures to make sure that students and exchange visitors are able to come in and get their interviews so that they are not delayed for their classes. 97 percent of the applicants who come in now for visas, where the visa is approved, get the visas within one to two days after the visa is approved.

About 2.2 percent of all visa applications -- not just student applications, but the entire universe of visa applicants – represent cases that require additional scrutiny back here in Washington. And those are the cases, I think, that were reported in the press where we had delays. Again, it's only about 2.2 percent of roughly the 7 million people who were processed last year.

There is no question that in late 2002 and in 2003 we did experience delays with the cases that were referred back to Washington to include visas mantis cases, which I think some of you have heard about. These are the checks that are done to guard against the transfer of sensitive technology. About a year ago at this time, it was taking us an average of 75 days to process visas mantis cases. I’m happy to report that last month, the average processing time for those cases was 14 days. So we've gone from 75 days to 14, which I think is a very significant improvement. And we have heard from our posts around the world that they have seen a noticeable improvement in the processing times. We've added additional staff to process cases. We are using more and better technology to do these checks and to process visas. All of this, I think, has resulted in faster turnaround times and so, again, I wanted all of you to be aware of these changes.

In addition to trying to make the process more predictable, we've made it more transparent. And we have done that by posting more information on our websites, both on the State Department website at -- if you look there under the Consular Affairs section, you will see a lot more information about visas. You’ll also see the waiting times for appointments at the different processing posts overseas; again, we are trying to get more information out there about the process. Individual consulates and embassies now have a lot more information about visa processing on their websites. So I encourage you to look at those websites. You will see information about waiting times, about requirements for visas, and you'll see that they do have special procedures in place to handle emergency cases, cases where people cannot wait for their appointment, they need to come to the United States sooner than the appointment time. So we think that by making the process more predictable, more transparent, it is easier to understand and hopefully we will overcome some of the misperceptions that exist about visa processing.

As I said, 97 percent of the people who apply for visas, once the visa is approved, get their visas in one or two days now. The times have improved. We certainly continue to welcome foreign students, exchange visitors and all legitimate visitors here to the United States. Consular officers work every day around the world to try to strike the proper balance between secure borders and open doors. And we will continue to do that.

And I'm happy to take any questions that you might have. Thank you.

MR. DENIG: Okay. Thank you very much, Janice.

We'll now go to questions, and we'll take our first question from New York.

QUESTION: Hi. I'm Chris Grimes from the Financial Times.

I was wondering if there is anything that the U.S. can learn from the UK or New Zealand or some of the other countries that are aggressively trying to recruit some of the best and brightest international students. And also, if there is more marketing spending or other ways that the U.S. is trying to change perceptions, negative perceptions overseas.

MS. HARRISON: Thank you. I think before you can really market, you have to deal with the perception. The perception is, or had been, right after September 2001, that there were extreme difficulties, but beyond the difficulties, that we did not want foreign students coming to this country. Nothing could be further from the truth. And I think, as you've heard today, yeoman efforts have been put in place to ensure that people of goodwill are able to come here and study.

It is very interesting to me because we are the premier destination. Our closest competitor, if we want to call them that, our good friends in the UK, attract approximately 270,000 foreign students, and the U.S. is more than double that. However, you have to look at, is the trend our friend or not?

And the answer is, it is. But what has changed here is that we can no longer take this group of people, this very valuable group of people throughout the world, for granted; and a lot of things are in play right now. Other countries are competing where they hadn't before. Other countries are making it attractive for their students to stay where they are. There are economic factors. In fact, one can look at some of the studies and say that we've moved beyond the visa challenge to more of an economic challenge.

And so what we are doing is working with the private sector, working with these universities, who, maybe in the past, had the reverse problem -- not being able to accept as many people who wanted to come. And now they find they really need to get out there in a global way, to compete and market, and this has been a realization that has been coming, as you see the numbers of people coming here.

I have to say, though, that the report of '03 and '04 is showing a slight uptick. Now, I hesitate to say that because we have a lot of work to do. I think we're going to be in a competitive environment for a very long time, but for the United States, competition is a good thing when you have the best product. Thank you.

MR. DENIG: Okay, we'll go to New York for a second question.

MR. FOUKARA: Yes, hi. Good morning to all of you. My name is Abderrahim Foukara from Al Jazeera, and perhaps my first question is directed at Mr. Michael Garcia.

On the 21st of December, the New York Times published an article saying that the number of overseas students coming to the U.S. had been in decline even before 9/11, but the measures taken after 9/11 have certainly had an impact also. I was wondering if Mr. Michael Garcia agrees with that assessment and is that a problem for ICE, or is it rather, a problem for the educational sector in the U.S.?

And just one more point that has already been talked about in the previous answer, to what extent is the United States concerned that many of the students who would have otherwise come to the United States are now going to the competitors -- UK, Australia, Canada -- other English-speaking countries? Thank you.

MR. GARCIA: Thank you. With respect to the numbers, in fact, if you look at August '03 over August '04 numbers, or September '03 over September '04, you see a slight increase in student population here from overseas from a little over 600,000 to 640,000. There has been a lot of media attention given to the numbers to the different programs. I think a good explanation was given as to the competitive nature of the foreign students in the university systems and the equality of the product that the United States has to offer. I won't go into that again.

In terms of the processes we have in place here, they're designed to do two things: First, to get at violators, the people that want to come here to violate the immigration system and not comply with the terms of their visa, and second, to welcome foreign students who wish to come here to take advantage of the excellent education system we have in this country.

I think SEVIS strikes the appropriate balance. I think the efforts -- like the efforts today to emphasize to the legitimate student population, the opportunities to comply to make it as seamless and as painless as possible -- are very good opportunities we should all take advantage of, but there is a deterrent message as well for those people who would abuse the student visa system to come here for other purposes. Thank you.

MR. DENIG: I think the second part of the question we answered already with regard to -- Janice, do you want to? Please.

MS. JACOBS: I would like to answer the second question about, basically, how do we feel about students going elsewhere. My boss, Assistant Secretary Harty, often says that we don't want to lose even one student; and that is absolutely true. Because if you think about it, if we lose a student, it's not really just one student that we've lost; it's probably the entire family. If that student has siblings, the sibling is likely to choose the other country to study in. The family will go to the other country for tourism to visit their children.

So, we may have lost an entire generation in the end. I think it's very important for us to continue to attract foreign students, which is why we're all here today, to try to get the message out that we are still a welcoming nation and that it is possible to come here to study. Thank you.

MR. DENIG: All right. We'll be glad to take your questions here now. I'll just remind you to please use the microphone, identify yourself and your news organization, and let's start right up here in the front.

QUESTION: Thank you. My name is Jennie Illustre. I'm with Malya, a Philippine newspaper.

I'd like to know, in what way are the policy changes and rules different for students coming from countries that have been designated as a country with a foreign terrorist organizations or FTOs?

MS. JACOBS: Basically, the overall policies are applied worldwide. In other words, there are no country-specific policies, if you will. There are some additional checks that are done on certain types of applicants, would-be visitors. Those, you know, checks, security-type checks, those checks have increased after 9/11.

I was talking earlier about cases that are referred back to Washington. It would be those types of cases. But the good news there is that we have really improved our processing time of those cases. Of all of the cases that are referred back to Washington now, well over 90 percent of them are processed in 30 days or less. And as I said, for some of the checks, the visas mantis check, for example, are down to about 14 working days average processing time.

So the policies apply worldwide. About 2.2 percent of all visa applicants are subject to some type of check to include some type of security checks.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the gentleman in the brown shirt, please.

QUESTION: Yunzhao Pan, from the Xinhua News Agency.

I have two questions: One concerns the Chinese students. I know the number of Chinese students coming to United States has fallen since September 11th, and because some of them are afraid that they cannot -- some of them cannot get the visas. And some Chinese students in the United States don't want to go back to China because they are afraid that they cannot get visas once they are in China. What's your comment on this?

Second question is that, as far as I know, your American service in China get multi-entry visas at the Chinese Embassy in United States, but for the Chinese tourists to get to United States, they get only single-entry visas. I want to know when can the Chinese service get the same sentiment of their American counterparts. Thank you.

MS. JACOBS: Okay, let me answer your first question. Actually, we issued 15 percent more student visas to Chinese nationals last year than the previous fiscal year. In fiscal year 2003 we issued 21,786 student visas to Chinese nationals, and last fiscal year, 2004, we issued 25,647. So there was an increase of slightly less than 4,000 visas. So the numbers are actually up. And something that I'd also like to point out on worldwide basis, not just in China, is that for the first time after 9/11, we are starting to see our numbers increase.

I don't think it's any secret that the number of people applying for all types of visas after 9/11 dropped significantly after the tragic events of that day. But for the first six months of 2004, we have seen about a 10 percent increase in the number of people applying, and our issuance rate has gone up about 14 percent. For student visas, there has been about a nine percent increase in the number of people applying for student visas, and our issuance rate is up 11 percent over what it was last year. I think all of this shows that we are finally turning the corner after 9/11 and are starting to see again an increase in numbers. Again, the numbers are much smaller than they were before 9/11, there's no question about that, but they are, for the first time, starting to go up again, which I think is very good news.

On your question about reciprocity, I think we'd really like to keep the conversation today to student visas. But just in general, reciprocity is something that we negotiate with other governments. And so if there's a need to change a reciprocity schedule that's not in balance, then we would do that in discussions with the PRC Government.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the lady in the second row, please.

QUESTION: Thank you. My name is Salmy Hasim from Bernama, Malaysia. This question is for Mr. Garcia.

Do you keep -- does the U.S. keep a list of countries considered risky and does restrict visas for those countries, especially Muslim and Arab countries? And the other question is whether universities are required to keep a surveillance of foreign students, their activities, whether they attend their school after they register? Thank you.

MR. GARCIA: I'll defer to my colleagues from the State Department on visa issuance. I'm not involved in that.

As to the school's participation in the program, I wouldn't characterize it as surveillance. Schools under this program have an obligation to report certain things through the SEVIS system such as the student has arrived and is attending school. We see that as a very reasonable participation on the part of the institutions to assure us that the student is complying with the terms of their entry document and to notify us if they drop out of school.

Now, in some cases, a student may leave one institution and transfer to another and we'll make note of that. In some cases, students may leave the country and we'll note that. But in some cases, people become violators and do not comply with the terms of their visa, and we will then take law enforcement action. So what we look to the schools, really, is for responsible partnership with us in ensuring compliance and integrity in the system and in making the system work for legitimate students.

QUESTION: Are there any special visa policies in place for people from Muslim countries and Arab countries?

MR. DENIG: Okay. Janice, can you speak to that?

MS. JACOBS: I think your question was whether there are any special visa policies in place for people from Muslim countries and Arab countries. As I said earlier, there are no visa policies that are country-specific. These are worldwide policies and procedures that are used by all of our visa-processing posts.

As I said, also there are additional security checks that are being done after 9/11; again, not necessarily country-specific, but there are cases out of each country that are referred back to Washington for different types of security checks. But there is nothing in place that is specific to individual countries.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to the gentleman in the green shirt, please.

QUESTION: My name is Jury Sigov, Business People Magazine. I have two questions, one for Ms. Jacobs and one for Mr. Garcia.

For Ms. Jacobs, I would like to know if you have any figures for the 2004 about the current enrollment and visa issuing for students from Russia and the former Soviet Union if this number is decreasing or it's more or less stable?

And for Mr. Garcia, the question is about people who are coming here from students' visas and staying here in this country, looking for jobs or changing their visa status and so on. For example, last month in Russia it was a big article about very big popularity of Great Britain now for Russian students since after studies in Great Britain they can stay there, they can get a job and they can continue their life in Britain, including getting British citizenship.

It's not just about Russia or former Soviet Union. Just in general terms, do you keep this record or track of people who are coming here on students' visas and then staying in the United States, working here, changing their visa status and so on?

MS. JACOBS: I'm afraid I don't have any figures just for the former Soviet Union, Russia, but I can get that information to you. We'll try to do that after the briefing. I can tell you that worldwide we issued 478,219 student visas in fiscal year 2004. And in fiscal year 2003, we had issued 473,715 student visas. And I'll get that other information to you.

MR. GARCIA: I'll just quickly take the second part of your question. It's a good point. Certainly we look at students who are no longer attending school, but have gone through the lawful process of attempting to change their status. We see that particularly in certain post-graduate fields in the United States technology sectors. And there are open, very legitimate ways to do that, to change your status from a student visitor. We certainly encourage that. That will not create a violation within the SEVIS system. And I believe that that program, which is administered by the services side of the Department of Homeland Security, is very robust right now; and we, of course, work with them, share information so that we're not using resources to look at people we think are violators who are, in fact, going through that transition process you described.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to Korea in the first row, please.

QUESTION: Kiyon Kuk with Segye Times, one of nationwide Korean daily news. I got a question for Ms. Jacobs.

Do you have statistics about visa issuance for Korea student? If you don't have, is there any way I can get that data?

MS. JACOBS: Yes, we'll get that to you.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to the lady there, please, in the black. Thanks.

QUESTION: Aya Betrawy for Kuwait News Agency.

My question is, I think for students in the Middle East and the Muslim world, I've done a lot of research on it and I've found that the root of the problem isn't so much visa applications as much as it is U.S. image over there and its foreign policy image, especially with its role in Israel and Iraq. So my question is, how much has the foreign policy image over there affected your efforts to bring students here?

MS. HARRISON: Well, let me say that at a younger level, when we first started our program to bring over high school students, obviously, from the Muslim and Arab world, in order to even proceed, we had to have their parents' permission. And I think that's a good indication, we now have a waiting list of parents who want their young people to come and spend an entire year in this country.

And I think the perception right after 2001 was a huge deterrent to a lot of people in the Middle East to come here and study. But as I travel throughout the world and as our ambassadors at posts in these regions get out there and communicate, “we want you to come,” what you find is that these young people -- and when I say young people, I'm talking about college age and scholars -- really do want to come.

Perception is very, very important. If there is a perception that you don't want someone, that person will self-select themselves out of even applying. So the first step is communicating, we want you here. The question from Al Jazeera earlier spoke to something very important. If you look at our alumni of these programs, among these alumni are former heads of state, are people who had a relationship with the United States at a real important level for the future. So we need to invest now. So we continue to have these strong relationships with people who eventually become leaders of their country, leaders of their community, and we believe that by starting with high school students we'll have an even longer track to go. And eventually, who knows, these are the young people who will be in place to come here and go to college and for higher education as well.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to the gentleman in the third row here.

QUESTION: Thank you. Yongjing Li with China Radio International. My question is for Ms. Jacobs.

You said that in 2003 and 2004 academic financial year the U.S. issued over 25,000 visas to Chinese students, and there is actually an increase of almost 4,000 over the previous year. So how does this figure compare with figures -- pre-9-1-1 figures? And also, there is actually a decrease of 4.6 percent of the -- in the enrollment -- in the overall enrollment of Chinese students here in the U.S. And is visa still the primary problem for them?

MS. JACOBS: Okay. I may be able to give you the figures for student visa issuances before 9/11 before I leave today. I'll try to do that.

The report I think you're talking about that talks about the decrease was the Open Door Report that IIE produced. And I think that that's always a year behind. It's reporting on the previous year if I'm not mistaken. So you're not going to see an increase in numbers in the report already. There's always going to be a lag between the time that we issue a visa and then you start to see the impact on the numbers in the United States. So hopefully, when the report comes out next year, then we will see an increase in the numbers, but there's always this time lag between the time that the study is issued and when we had issued visas.

MR. DENIG: Okay, the gentleman in the middle, please.

QUESTION: My name is Yong Tang. I'm from People's Daily.

My question is, many Chinese student visa applicants just complain that they often get confused why some applicants get the visa while some not. They often say that someone gets a visa only because the visa officer is happy that day, and vice versa (laughter), and someone gets a visa only because maybe they are well dressed that day. So how do you make sure that the visa decision will be made on a more open, more stable and more reasonable basis? Thank you.

MS. JACOBS: I know that sometimes it does seem to applicants that the decisions appear somewhat arbitrary. I can reassure you that all of the officers that adjudicate visas go through a lot of training before they go out to the field. And basically, everyone is using the same standards and applying the same laws at all of our visa-processing posts. And so when people come in to apply for their visa, the officers know what they are supposed to be looking for.

Basically, for student visas and for most other non-immigrant visas, there are different requirements that have to be met for each one. But one basic requirement is that the applicant must show that he or she intends to depart from the United States after the temporary stay in the United States, whether they had come to study here, to visit -- whatever the purpose of travel is. So applicants are asked to bring in evidence of ties outside of the United States. And usually, that's in the form of a job, family ties, other ties to the home country that would cause the person to go back after the visit to the United States.

For students, there are other requirements. You have to show that you have the financial ability to cover your educational costs in the United States. You have to have the form from the school. I want to just point out something here, adding on a little bit to what Assistant Secretary Garcia was saying about SEVIS.

I mentioned earlier that our issuance rates are up for student visas. I said that we have about a nine percent increase in the number of applications and that the issuance rate has gone up to about 11 percent. I think one of the reasons for that is that for the first time, our consular officers are actually able to look in a system, in the SEVIS system, to confirm the data that they have. They are able to confirm that the I-20, that the document from the school is legitimate. They are able to confirm that the person is -- has been accepted by a school and plans to enroll there. And I think that this has raised the comfort level of the adjudicating officers so that they are able to issue more visas.

So I think that in that regard that this, that some of the measures that we have put in place after 9/11 are very helpful in facilitating legitimate travel.

MR. DENIG: Janice, maybe just to clarify the numbers, so applications worldwide are up nine percent and issuance is up 11 percent?

MS. JACOBS: For student visas overall, worldwide, applications are up 9 percent for the first six months of 2004, and the issuance rate is up 11 percent. Overall, for all types of non-immigrant visas, the numbers are up 10 percent and the issuance rate is up 14 percent for the first six months of 2004.

MR. DENIG: Any other questions?

Yes, one question up front here please.

QUESTION: Wei Jing from Phoenix TV of Hong Kong. I have two questions for Ms. Harrison and one for Ms. Jacobs.

The two questions for you is, why do you come out today to do this? Is that because you feel the heat of competition that you want -- this year, hopefully, you get more -- a big hike of students coming in? And the second is, would there be some special program set up -- maybe now is too early to say for tsunami-victim countries to help their students if they want to come? And maybe --

MR. DENIG: Do you want to wait and then --

MS. HARRISON: All right, thank you. The heat of competition is a motivating factor always, but I think we're going to continue to do these kinds of things. It's not just one message one time. This is not a sound byte presentation. This is an earnest, ongoing, sustainable program. We're going to be doing this for a very, very long time.

I was at one trade fair, and I think it was Germany who had an ad saying, “come to Germany where you can have an American education.” (Laughter). And so there's a lot of marketing going on out there. And as I indicated before, why are we doing this? Of course there is a financial positive that international students bring to the United States. But if you're looking over the long term, it's the relationships that are built between people that emerge into relationships between countries. And that's why we want students here for a very long time, so we have these connectors.
And looking at the horrible events in terms of the tsunami, that's why I opened talking about our Fulbright students. We at the Bureau of Educational Cultural Affairs are looking now at the programs we offer through International Visitor, Fulbright, and others, to determine how we can, long after the headlines die down, be responsive to people in the region, whether it's in terms of education, whether it's global warming systems, whether it's school-to-school kind of activity, so right now, we are looking at ways, working with our alumni, working with the people at Educational and Cultural Affairs, how we can continue for a very, very long time helping those people in the region.

MR. DENIG: Okay. Second question?

QUESTION: Sorry. They might not be a student question, per se, but the Chinese Tourism Administration just signed a memo of understanding with the U.S. Commerce Department about promoting tourism, but people say the bottleneck is still the visa problem at the State Department. Would there be any prospect that tourism visas for Chinese tourists, who will spend a lot of money also, for them to come visit the States?

MS. JACOBS: Certainly we welcome Chinese tourists here. It's basically the same requirements that I was talking about earlier to get a visa. We hope that we do see more Chinese tourists applying for visas in the future.

MR. DENIG: Okay, let's see. I might have time for one or two more here.

QUESTION: Hi. My name is Ozge Ovun. I am with Voice of America Turkish Service, and my question is to Ms. Jacobs.

As you may know that Turkey is the country which sends the most number of students from Near East and also Middle East. But since these visa issues are getting tougher and tougher in Turkey, I know that students are starting to go to other countries. So what are you advices to Turkish students? And I'd like to send your invitation to them.

MS. JACOBS: Well, I'll hope that you'll tell them what you've heard today about the fact that, first of all, the welcome mat is still out, and that it really is not that difficult to get a visa, provided that you qualify. Once you get your appointment to come in for your interview, the vast majority of people who are approved get their visa either that day or within one or two days after the approval.

I know that the consulate in Istanbul, the embassy in Ankara, our embassies around the world are all engaged in outreach -- trying to get the word out about visas, trying to overcome a lot of the misperceptions that exist.

Certainly I think that at a lot of the posts -- in China, Turkey, I know -- the ambassador has been involved. The Consular Section and the Public Affairs Section of the embassies have been out talking to the press, talking to students, talking at schools, talking to many different groups trying to explain the visa process, explain the changes that have taken place after 9/11, and to make sure that people understand that we still want them here.

MR. DENIG: All right, let's go to the lady over there, please. And then we'll go to the lady back there.

QUESTION: Maria Matheus, El Universal, Venezuela.

Prior to September 11, the international students in the U.S. ranked as the fifth service industry of this country and produced around $12 billion to the U.S. economy before September 11th. How would you rank that industry now after September 11th?

MS. HARRISON: Well, you know, I think a lot of this is being driven by headlines. "The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!" We would rank it the way we did before. In other words, we are still the premier destination -- that hasn't changed; we get double the number of our closest, wonderful good friends, the UK. What we're talking about here is actually trying to put in place things that keep us in this position. It's very important. In fact, that number may be even up. I hate to quote something that's not correct. You're right about the $12 billion, but I think that's actually moved more than that.

What my point has been, while it's very important to focus on what these students bring in terms of money, from my standpoint, it's the relationships that last for a very long time, that are even more important than the revenue they bring in. That's not something we treat lightly, so I would rank this as one of our country's highest priorities. Thank you.

MR. DENIG: Last question, the gentleman in the back.

QUESTION: Konvalina, Czech Radio.

What kind of future professions you would like to attract? Either more fair and balanced journalists or more agriculture or more computer skills -- what kind of professions -- are there some priorities, you know, half of them has to be computer students or -- no? No priorities?

MS. HARRISON: No. No, no. We want people of good will who simply want to learn and strengthen their own communities. Through our programs, which are not student programs, our international visitor programs, we focus on various fields of endeavor -- journalists. We are bringing more journalists over here from different countries for training -- that kind of thing. But in terms of students, we want people to come here, or maybe just in my case, I didn't know what I was going to be when I grew up, so we want people to come here, get a great education, have an opportunity to interact with Americans and then decide what they're going to do eventually. Thank you.