Chinese Students to Get One-Year Visas Under New Policy

From Chronicle Daily News of June 15, 2005

The United States and China have agreed to offer each other's students and scholars one-year, multiple-entry visas, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing announced on Tuesday. Academic visitors traveling between the two countries currently receive visas good for only six months and two entries.

The policy shift, which takes effect on June 20, means that students and scholars will not have to return home as frequently as before to renew their visas, saving them time and money. In a written statement, the embassy said the reciprocity agreement "is a sign of the United States' continuing interest in attracting talented students from China and elsewhere to American campuses."

The embassy noted that Chinese applications for study in the United States are already on the rise, due in part to the recent extension of security clearances for foreign students and scholars who work in sensitive technical fields. Visas Mantis clearances are now good for up to four years, instead of only one. The U.S. Embassy in China and its four consulates issued 2,314 student visas and 617 exchange-visitor visas this past May, up from 1,518 and 309 in May 2004.

Higher-education lobbyists have been pushing for a one-year visa for several years. Nils Hasselmo, president of the Association of American Universities, said on Tuesday that the extension would facilitate the flow of even more Chinese students and scholars to the United States.

"I think it's very important that we maintain contact and have exchanges," he said, noting that China has been rapidly building its own educational system. "It is very much in our interest."