On October 15th, Students United submitted the following public comment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on a proposed rule titled “Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media.” The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of DHS and administers the country’s naturalization and immigration system. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under DHS and enforces DHS and USCIS rules. To learn more about the proposed rule click here.
Students United is the statewide student association representing the 50,000+ students attending the seven Minnesota State universities: Bemidji State University, Minnesota State University – Moorhead, Minnesota State University – Mankato, Metropolitan State University, Southwest Minnesota State University, St. Cloud State University, and Winona State University.
The new proposed rule, which would set a four-year limit on international visas and require reapplication for any academic stay past four years, is not only harmful to students’ own academic success but harmful to higher education and the United States more broadly. The addition of the reduction from 60 to 30 days of permissible stay after the academic program ends has the same effect.
For starters, these rules would apply to all student statuses, including Ph.D. programs which are nearly always longer than four years. This means anyone reapplying for the visa would functionally be distracted from program completion. If USCIS determines a student does not need a visa extension, we risk putting students in the position of never being able to complete the education they invested in.
Notably, there is no evidence or data suggesting international students sweepingly overstay their visas or otherwise commit immigration fraud, making the added paperwork/processing labor required to implement this rule unnecessarily burdensome on students, the Department of Homeland Security, on colleges/universities, and on taxpayers. Higher education institutions would need to invest labor and money into international student services to assist students in understanding these rules and completing their paperwork. Regardless, restricting a visa for four years and requiring reapplication will not address visa overstays. Anyone intending on doing this—a very small group of people—could still overstay their visa by simply not requesting an extension.
The success of a student is measured by the skills they have gained and how they meaningfully apply those skills to society and the world around them. International students come to the United States willing to pay much higher rates than domestic students with the hope of receiving the best education in the world and securing the same goals and outcomes for their lives as domestic students. Making that more difficult for them does not make the United States safer. Instead, this rule joins additional restrictions on immigration and higher education to continue to reduce international students’ interest in the United States. It reduces their enrollment, their contributions to society, creates a loss of meaningful connections between domestic and international students, and without basis, criminalizes a group of people who are simply interested in securing the best education possible.
We at Students United understand international students are a critical and valuable addition to higher education in the United States and restate our firm opposition to the proposed rules. Thank you for your consideration.