US Embassy Announces Student Visa Reciprosity Agreement

Consul General John Daniel Morris
Consul General Michael Regan
June 16, 2005

Posted on Jun 21, 2005

MR. MORRIS: -- We have made an agreement with China on extension of student visas to twelve months, up from the six months previously. Have you all seen and read that press report?

Okay. Well, we just wanted to offer the opportunity for the press today to ask any questions they might have about the new agreement. I would like to start off, however, by talking a little bit about the background of the agreement and a little bit about student visas and the China Mission in general.

We've been working toward this agreement and looking forward to it for quite some time. For over a year we've been discussing with the Chinese government taking this step. Obviously extending the validity period from six months to twelve months will make it much more convenient for students to travel to the United States. And if they have to come back on an emergency or come back for vacation, they can come back knowing that they don't have to bother to reapply; they can go back on the visa that they already hold. So this is a very positive development.

This is also part of a continuation of efforts to look for ways to facilitate travel by American citizens to China and Chinese to the United States. You may recall that in January of this year we reached an agreement on extending the validity for tourists and business travel to twelve months, and so this agreement is another positive development and part of what we hope will be many other positive steps in encouraging travel to the U.S.

I see we have some new arrivals. I'll let them have a seat.

Let me just repeat for the new arrivals that this new agreement that we have signed with the Chinese government is part of our efforts to encourage and facilitate travel from China to the United States. We signed an agreement in January on tourist and business visas. And now we have signed one on student visas. It's part of a continuing liberalization process.

In early March of this year our Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Maura Harty, made a special trip to China and gave a speech at Beijing University where she made a strong pitch for Chinese students to renew their interest in study in the United States. In that speech she said, "The welcome mat is out for international students, especially Chinese students." And she noted that the Chinese students in the United States are now second in number to the number of Indian students, and so she challenged the Chinese students to show even greater interest. She noted that some of the measures, the visa procedures that had been put in place in the past few years, had created an atmosphere that seemed like it was not a welcoming atmosphere for students to the United States, and she came out here especially to try to counter that perception.

And since her visit our Embassy and our other Consulates throughout China have been making concerted efforts to spread that same message, and that's part of the reason we're here today. We're trying to continue to spread the message that the United States recognizes the great potential for Chinese students in the United States, recognizes the value that has for the future for both of our nations, and it's something that we want to strongly encourage. From what we can see so far this year, this summer season of applications, we've been very successful.

I want to give you some statistics now based on the early part of the summer, April and May period, comparing April and May of last year to April and May of this year. The season for student applications begins in April. This year we saw in April a 31 percent increase in the number of student visas issued throughout all our missions in China. In the month of May, that percentage of increase was up to 52 percent over the previous year, a one-year increase of 52 percent. Of course we don't know if that 52 percent will continue through the summer; but it is certainly a sign that the message that we are trying to convey, that the United States welcomes students, is being heard, and more and more students are applying to go to the United States.

And if you'll bear with me, I'll just go through a few more figures for the last five years, so you can see the trend and how it looks like it's developing. In the year 1999 to 2000, the China Mission issued over 17,000 student visas. In the year 2000-2001 -- this was the peak year -- the U.S. issued over 19,000. In the year 2001 to 2002, the number began to drop. It was just over 17,000. And the year 2002 to 2003, we were at the lowest point, just over 13,000. We think some of the factors that were involved in this drop were -- for example, during the SARS period, there were a lot of people who simply did not travel abroad. And we also recognize that there was a perception that it was perhaps difficult to get a U.S. visa. So last year we saw the numbers begin to go back up. In 2003 to 2004 period, there were over 15,000 applications.

So what we see is from last year's over 15,000, if we have an increase this year of only 25 percent, we will already be ahead of the peak year in the past. We will have more than in our peak period in the past. So we don't know if the 52-percent increase in May is going to continue; but even if it is only 25 percent, it's still going to have more visas issued here in this China Mission this year than in any year in the past. So we assume that a lot of people are happy about this: the Chinese students who are applying, the universities who are getting the good students, and we, also, because we know this is in the United States' interest.

In addition to just getting the message out that we're trying to be more welcoming, we are taking some concrete measures, and I just want to describe a few of those to you today. To come in for a visa interview one needs an appointment. We have set aside each day 250 slots for student visa applications during this peak period. So today in Beijing there's only -- there's less than a week wait for an interview, and throughout China there's less than a ten-day wait at every post for an interview. Officers from our section have visited ten universities this spring throughout Northern China, and our other consulates have visited many universities to try to explain our visa procedures and to answer questions that students might have. We've also organized and held many Web chats through sina.com and other portals that have attracted significant interest. Sometimes we have tens of thousands of individuals logging onto the Web chats to ask questions and to read the texts of our answers on the Web chats.

This is Mr. Mike Clausen, here. He is our student visa issue coordinator, and he is going to be participating in and hosting a Web chat on sina.com next Monday afternoon at three o'clock. Mr. Clausen meets very, very regularly with educators and university representatives who come to China to promote their study programs and encourage student applications.

I recall that when Assistant Secretary Harty was here, one of the reasons that she gave for study in the United States was to simply read out some of the names of the universities, Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Berkley. It goes on and on. There's no country in the world that offers the quality education that the United States offers. We recently did an informal survey in our section from some of the recent applications from one week of applications. Two thirds of those applicants were being 100 percent funded by the U.S. universities. Eighty-six percent of the Chinese students going to the United States were receiving at least some funding from the United States. So that's a pretty welcoming sign as well.

About 18 percent of our student applications today are reapplications or renewals. So I think a lot of this 18 percent will find things more convenient with the extended visa reciprocity. Some of them won't have to bother to reapply. They can just use the visa they already have.

I will be leaving China very soon, and I want to introduce you to Mr. Regan who will be succeeding me. He is coming from Washington, and I know that he has a lot of ideas and thoughts about future ways to improve cooperation and travel back and forth between the U.S. and China.

MR. REGAN: I'll say a couple words.

MR. MORRIS: Okay.

MR. REGAN: I'm very happy to be here in Beijing, first of all. It's my first posting in Beijing. I just hope in the next few years, I can have as much success as Dan Morris has had in promoting good relations between our two countries and in facilitating the visa application process for Chinese visa applicants.

I think Chinese students studying in the United States at the university and graduate levels is very important for our bilateral relations and provides clear benefits for both our countries. For the United States it's very important and, I think, very beneficial for us to be able to expose our culture and our values to foreign students. And for China, I think it's very important for the future leaders of China in many sectors of society to have the opportunity to receive the quality of education that they can get in America universities and graduate level studies. So, once again, I anticipate in the next three years we'll have further progress in using the opportunities for Chinese students to study in the United States to promote our bilateral interests.

MR. MORRIS: Okay. We'd just like to open the floor up. If you have any questions, we'd be glad to try to answer them.

QUESTION: Will the U.S. continue to make its visa policies more open to Chinese?

MR. MORRIS: Yes, absolutely. Well, of course, everyone realizes that since the 9/11 incident the United States has had to take a very careful look at visa procedures worldwide. And, of course, the security of our nation has to remain the number one consideration in any visa policy. But we are continuously looking for ways, working within that framework, to try to encourage travel from China to the U.S. and looking at the procedures and seeing what ways we can adopt to encourage those. And I think we pointed today to two successes we've had already which is the expansion of the reciprocity for the B visas and now the expansion of the reciprocity for the F visas. And we will certainly be looking at other ways that make sense for facilitating travel while maintaining the commitment to secure borders.

QUESTION: Just now you introduced statistics for student visa issuance and you say that is 52 percent higher compared with the same period of last year. What's the percentage compared with the total application figures.

MR. MORRIS: It's roughly equivalent. One misperception was that after 9/11 more people were being refused visas. That's a misperception. The percentage of applicants who were being issued visas was always the same. It really didn't change very much. Even after 9/11, we never instituted a higher refusal rate. It was fewer numbers of applicants were applying. The law which applies to whether a person gets a visa or doesn't get a visa did not change. What did change was that there were some more complex procedures that were put into place. If you're looking at a refusal rate, it fluctuates from month to month. Sometimes one applicant will apply maybe five times, and so that counts as five refusals. So that statistic is not necessarily revealing. What we can say is that significantly more applicants are approved than are denied visas.

QUESTION: As you know, the Chinese students have many choices in selecting universities in the world. For instance some of them would choose to study in European countries or in other countries. Now the extension of student visa would give them a sign that U.S. is welcoming students to study there. Then there might be a great increase in applying for U.S. visas. Will U.S. have limits or quotas for the student visa applications?

MR. MORRIS: Absolutely not. We welcome all qualified students to the United States. If we get more applicants more interested, then that's exactly what we want. There's absolutely no quota. We know there's competition from other countries, but we think we have the best schools, the best universities. And it's only natural that many, many students would choose the United States, particularly as there are financial reasons to come to the United States as well, the scholarships.

MR. REGAN: Let me just add that the United States has hundreds of excellent universities, far more than -- there's excellent universities in Australia and in England and in Canada, but the total student enrollment in those countries combined is far less than in the United States. So we have literally hundreds of universities that want foreign students and in many cases especially Chinese students to come to the United States to study. So we certainly would never, for a number of reasons, want to limit -- have a quota on the number of student visas we issue in any particular country or worldwide for that matter.

QUESTION: I'm a student just graduating from the University of Maine. So I'm more concerned about the life after F-1 visa. As I know, most employers don't want to hire the students with the OPT, that is, Optional Practical Training. So is U.S. opening more job opportunities for the students that graduate from the American schools and want to work in the United States?

MR. REGAN: There's not any changes that I'm aware of being planned along these lines. As you know, after students complete their studies in the States most foreign students return to their own countries to work. The expectation is that most students will eventually return to their own countries. There is a provision for students to have a period of practical training after they complete their studies. I know that many students are able to do that. I'm sure that in some cases some employers aren't that aware of that program, and so maybe it is difficult for some students to find employment. There also are temporary work visas, H-1-B visas that are available, and those are on a limited basis. There are quotas on those type of visas. And there's no current plans to increase the number of H-1-B visas available.

MR. MORRIS: Looking in the long term, you know, you can see that historically any international students, including Chinese students who've gone to the United States and come back to their home countries, have been very successful and made enormous contributions in their own countries. And at the same time those who have chosen to remain in the United States have made significant contributions to the United States and have found the United States very welcoming. And so I think that even if there might be a short-term situation in an individual case, I think in the long term, study in the United States by international students, especially Chinese students, makes a lot of sense.

I have two daughters actually about your age, and they're looking for jobs. And when you first start out after graduation, it's not always easy to find exactly the right opportunity. But I'm sure that my daughters will eventually, in a few years, find exactly what they want to do, and I'm sure that you will as well.

QUESTION: I'm just curious about why did the policy change happen at this time and what does it indicate? And the second question, what kind of benefits does the policy change bring to the Chinese visa applicants?

MR. MORRIS: Why at this time? Actually we have been working on this for a long time from the United States side. We have wanted to do this for quite a long time. We've been talking about it with the Chinese government. But in order to make a change like this, it has to be reciprocal. According to our rules and procedures, we can't just do this on our own without having the host government, whether it's the Chinese government or any other government, making a similar agreement to do that for American students. Because otherwise American students would say, "Why are you giving this benefit to Chinese students and the Chinese government doesn't give the benefit to American students?" So we had to go through the negotiation process. And the Chinese government, they had their concerns. And so we've been talking about it. And we had wanted to do this for a long time. We're glad that we were able to resolve all the issues and do it now.

The reason we wanted to do it for a long time is because we have taken note that there is a perception that the United States does not welcome students, and that's not right. That's not correct. So this agreement, it has some concrete benefits, and it also sends a positive signal. So we've wanted to do it for some time.

QUESTION: Who initiated the talk, the agreement talk?

MR. MORRIS: I would say it's a mutual discussion, mutual discussion. It's a mutual benefit.

MR. REGAN: As far as the advantage this provides the Chinese students, it really allows them within a one-year period, of course, to travel much more freely than in the past. A number of examples I can think of: A graduate student who in the United States wants to go to an international conference in Canada or in Europe during their stay. In the past they would have had to apply for a new visa to go back to the United States. Now within the 12-month period, they can travel in and out of the United States without getting a new visa. If they want simply to go on vacation in another country, return to China within the year, and then go back to the United States without applying for another visa. So less bother, don't have to apply as often, don't have to spend as much money applying, and generally a little more freedom to travel.

QUESTION: I'm wondering whether the United States is considering extending the multi-entry visas into other types of visas.

MR. MORRIS: We haven't really gotten into discussions. I think from my perspective there are other categories and other possibilities. We have not really been involved as yet in serious discussions with the Chinese on that. But it's a good idea, and this may be one of the areas Mr. Regan will want to look into.

QUESTION: Why did you start this extension with the student visas?

MR. MORRIS: Well, we started first with B's as tourists and business visas. And the reason we started with that was because they are such a very high percentage. That's maybe over 90 percent of our visas, in the B category. So obviously we concentrate on that category. The second category in terms of volume, in terms of importance to both country's interests, and in terms of, you know, many other factors -- we thought the student visas would be the second most important. And so those two categories are by far most of the visas that are issued. Most of the other categories of visas are a much smaller number. So that's why we focus on those two categories, the volume. Also, because business tourism and students -- it's very important to both sides.

QUESTION: You mention that in 2005 the number of visas issued is quite higher than 2004. What is the policy, actually, that governs how many visas can be issued, and why is it impossible to say right now whether or not that will continue to increase? That is, under what circumstances might it continue to increase and under what circumstances might it not continue to increase or decrease.

MR. MORRIS: This number is entirely dependent on the interests of the number of Chinese students who will be applying and on our success or lack of success in getting out the message that we welcome Chinese students to apply. We have 250 slots a day set aside. If more and more Chinese students were to be coming in, we would expand that to 300 slots or whatever is necessary. We're basically -- Assistant Secretary Harty said, "The welcome mat is out." So that means, you know, for Chinese students who are qualified students who have the financial resources, there's absolutely no limit that we will place on the number of students.

The reason we don't know whether it will be a 52-percent increase through the rest of the summer is because we really don't know how many students are out there that will be bringing applications to us and will be submitting applications and coming to us for visas. We would like to think that this 52-percent increase will continue into the summer and so the numbers will continue to be very high. But we can't really predict that for sure. We just don't know. It depends on the interest of the Chinese students.

And we hope that this agreement coming out at this time and getting a little bit of publicity will encourage some students who maybe have not decided which way they want to go to give us a try. Thank you all very much.