The number of students traveling to AU from abroad is decreasing because of new rules regarding foreigners coming to the United States, according to Robert Pastor, AU's vice president of International Affairs.
A program run by the Department of Homeland Security since January fingerprints and photographs foreign visitors coming into the United States from certain countries. Known as the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (VISIT) program, this is an effort to track international terrorists or criminals attempting to enter the country.
New rules say that foreigners from some close allies of the United States, such as Japan and Great Britain, must now be fingerprinted and photographed, Homeland Security spokeswoman Kimberly Weissman said. Visitors from 27 countries were previously allowed to visit the United States for 90 days without having a visa or being required to go through the U.S. VISIT process, she said.
There is a belief that the new rules will have a negative effect on students coming to AU from other countries, Pastor said.
"There is a better way of doing this," Pastor said.
He said the rules are making the United States a less attractive place for international students to study because of the slow process and problems with security checks on foreign nationals visiting the United States. Increased obstacles and security have made it much more difficult for all international travelers, especially students, he said.
Pastor said he has heard stories of students being denied visas for irrational reasons.
Pastor told one story of an AU faculty member of foreign origin with 15 years of experience at AU, having difficulty with his legal status.
One day the faculty member was called by security officials to go to their office and get fingerprinted and reauthorized. The faculty member later found out the authorization process was so slow, that his green card had expired before his authorization was verified.
According to Pastor, the issue is whether or not the new rules are a good way to implement the U.S. VISIT program.
"It's clear the U.S. is looking for the magic bullet to protect itself from terrorism," Pastor said.
According to Pastor, passports are the problem.
"The question is whether people have a fraud-proof passport, in a manner that would allow us to rely on the integrity of the passport to be tested alongside other intelligence we have," Pastor said.
These measures are being implemented because foreign countries are not able to meet the deadline of implementing the worldwide "biometric" passport standard in development, Weissman said.
According to Weissman, this standard requires all countries to use fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition information to be stored on a "biometric" chip, which would be on the passport.
Since foreign countries cannot meet the deadline set by Congress for complying with the passport standard, the Bush administration asked Congress to extend the deadline for foreign countries to adapt the biometrics standard, Weissman said. After the deadline was extended, "The administration has decided ... to start enrolling those travelers in the U.S. VISIT program," Weissman said.
