Home Away From Home?

Applying for a visa to the United States just got even harder. Last week, the Federal Register outlined new and increased prices for visa applications. Those wanting to apply for academic or vocational visas (F, J, and M visas) may have to pay up to $200 when these changes take effect on October 1, the start of the fiscal year of 2009. Not only do these increases heighten already problematic economic barriers for international visitors, but their purpose—to upgrade a federal surveillance program —reflects an abhorrently nativist governmental view toward non-immigrant visitors.

The proposals seek to increase the fees for internationals by charging both the schools that admit foreign students and the individual students and exchange-visitors (such as camp counselors and au pairs) themselves. More specifically, the fees are aimed at bolstering the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), administered by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). The proposed rules would remove “obsolete provisions used prior to implementation of the SEVIS, a Web-enabled database that provides current information on F, M and J non-immigrants in the United States.” That this money is going to a system meant primarily to monitor and record the activities of students is worrying.

These adjustments represent yet more bureaucratic tweaking to an unfortunate trend in immigration procedures—namely, the increasing cost of entering the U.S. Rather than continue to raise the economic bar to foreigners wishing to enter the country, the federal government should seek to alleviate the costs for international students. Ever rising costs will inevitably affect the numbers of international students, especially in smaller and community colleges. While Harvard and many of its peer institutions are able to generously refund the SEVIS fee to applicants, increasing the student fees is a problem that contributes to the national malaise of immigration policy.

As it is, international students are largely bracketed to those who are wealthy enough to afford the cost of attending school in a different country. They are not eligible for federal aid and have to factor in expenses such as travel. As a result, socioeconomic diversity is sorely lacking amongst international students. Visas fees ought not add to the prohibitive barriers for students to study in the U.S.

Most worrisome is that these federal regulations place the culture of welcoming international students at stake. As the digits of the fees climb, resentment and anti-American sentiment will too. That the fees actually fund a program designed to invasively monitor the activities of students is outrageous. The claim that this type of tracking of people under F, M or J non-immigrant visas helps to apprehend “violators before they can potentially endanger the national security of the United States” is preposterous. While the rhetoric of many agency heads suggests that foreign students are integral to a vibrant American society, such hospitality is completely undermined by these concrete, hostile disincentives to entry.

The public has until June 20 to comment on the proposed rule. We can only hope that sufficient criticism will be brought against this unwelcoming message from the federal government such that some semblance of the supposed open-armed greeting to international students can be salvaged.