Photo by Matt Kelly

Richard Tanson (above) of U.Va.'s International Studies Office advises Emma Seow, a student from Singapore, on paperwork she needs to file with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Tracking international students presents new challenges for office

By Matt Kelly

Emma Seow, 22, from Singapore, was frustrated as she pored over her paperwork.

A 2002 graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce, she was back on Grounds recently to refile with the Immigration and Naturalization Service for a practical training visa, allowing her to work in the United States for a limited time as an extension of her education. She said the federal agency lost the application she had already sent. Angry with the agency, she came to the University’s International Studies Office for advice.

The office has its own challenges with the INS. On July 29, the University became part of the early implementation of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. First mandated in 1996, the system, which will come online in January for all colleges and universities as part of heightened security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, tracks foreign students and exchange visitors. SEVIS, an interactive system working in real time, allows University officials to notify the INS immediately of changes in student status.

Rebecca Brown, director of the International Studies Office

The University is also notified, via SEVIS, when foreign students and scholars apply for visas, when the visas are granted and when the students enter the country. Richard Tanson, international student adviser at the office, said the information has to be gathered accurately and quickly, since there are strict reporting deadlines. The new rules affect mostly F1 visas for students and J1 visas for scholars, researchers and teachers.

About 1,500 international students attend U.Va., with 300 to 400 scholars and researchers.

“Most people in this country believe that illegal aliens are coming through a fence at the border,” Tanson said. “Most of them are visa overstays.”

He stressed that student visas only make up 2 to 3 percent of the visa total and have not been the problem in the past, partly because it is more difficult for a student to disappear than a tourist.

“No institution that pretends to be world class can do it without international students,” Tanson said. Part of the University’s job, he added, is to “disabuse students of their preconceived notions of the world.”

Foreign students return home to become business owners, engineers and government officials, most of them with positive feelings toward the U.S., Tanson said.

“We have all of these people asking ‘Why does everyone hate the United States?’” Tanson said. “The obvious solution is to provide a friendly context for them to come here and for our students to go there and study.”

Tanson said his office does not recruit students but acts as their adviser. The office also provides advice on protocols when meeting delegations from other countries, assists professors in understanding the cultural imperatives of some of their foreign students and helps students who have cultural problems and who are feeling homesick.

“We’re not just the visa office,” Tanson said. “We try to be a liaison with the culture.”

In addition to providing support for students, the office now acts as a law enforcement agency.

The government is justified in asking students why they want to come into the country and where they are going to be, Tanson believes.

Kenyan Fred Murai, 22, a third-year student at the Commerce School, said some of the new rules are good.

“As long as someone is here with legal standing, there shouldn’t be much difference for him or her,” he said.

Murai is attending U.Va. on a four-year visa, but his younger brother, who just started here, can only get a two-year visa.

The new regulations also restrict changing from one visa status to another. Students could enter the country on a tourist visa, travel for a while then convert to a student visa when arriving at school. They will now have to enter the country on a student visa and will be subjected to more security checks.

“We have less flexibility and less discretion,” said Rebecca Brown, director of the International Studies Office. Students, who have to be full-time, have to register with the University within 10 days of their arrival in the country. If they do not, then they may have to leave the country.

“We can be audited, and if we are not compliant the INS can remove our authorization to host international students and scholars,” which would affect all departments, Brown said.

The duration of the visa depends on its classification and country of origin.
Students from China, Iraq and Iran are issued visas for six months, and about 23 countries are listed for extensive background checks.

Two fully funded Chinese physics students were recently denied visas, but no faculty have been lost yet because of INS requirements, though Tanson predicted difficulties with faculty members and researchers from targeted countries. There are also many researchers brought to the University for short visits.

“You can’t limit research to geography,” Tanson said.