U.S. Immigration Rules Send Foreign Students Abroad

Applying to university is stressful enough. Add waiting for a visa and the stress level skyrockets.

In 2003, Vibhor Gupta faced just this predicament. After growing up in New Delhi, India, he and his friends began applying for school abroad.

The United States came top-rated. The only problem was new immigration rules which restricted access to the country.

"Getting a visa is tough," says Gupta. "A lot of people I know applied for visas in other countries after they got rejected by the U.S."

With family in Canada, Gupta decided against applying in the United States altogether. He settled on the University of New Brunswick to study computer engineering. After graduation, he began working full-time at a Canadian tech firm.

Gupta is one of many international students being dissuaded from applying in the United States. Following Sept. 11, visa denials and delays caused a decline in enrollment at U.S. universities. By 2003, growth in foreign student enrollment had fallen to 1 percent after five consecutive years at 5 percent.

Last year, the growth in international student enrollment started to rebound, reaching 3 percent. But these numbers aren't what they once were. This is because American universities are facing more competition. When the United States closed its doors, other countries opened theirs.

"There are a number of countries that have started to expand their research university programs," says Kathie Bailey-Mathae, director of the Board of International Scientific Organizations at the National Academies. "It's no longer a few countries. It's really a global market."

The biggest barrier to obtaining a visa came from face-to-face interviews with an American consular officer. Always a requirement for students, when it was discovered that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers gained valid visas without interviews, the meetings became a requirement for everyone.

The result was months-long delays as long lines formed around U.S. embassies and applicants dealt with overworked interviewers.

"The start of the semester wasn't negotiable. Students had to wait when they had a date to be here by," says Bailey-Mathae.

While the international students waited in line, other countries capitalized on the opportunity. Canada, Britain and Australia adopted aggressive programs to attract the students. At the same time, emerging markets like India and China expanded their universities.

By 2001, the proportion of the world's Ph.D. granted in the U.S. had fallen from 54 percent in the 1970s to 41 percent, according to the National Academies. At the same time, China awarded 12 percent of these degrees, compared to virtually zero 20 years ago.

This increase in global options combined with the tightening of U.S. security has deterred students from coming to the United States. What was an effort to increase physical security may be a blow to economic security.

In the education sector alone, the Institute of International Education says international students contribute $14.5 billion each year in tuition and living expenses.

As graduates, they stay in large numbers, working for American companies. Their skills and their ties to their home countries have proven invaluable to multinational companies, especially in the technology and science sectors.

"Those ties between countries are very important," says Bailey-Mathae. "The experience and the cultural nuances that the foreign students bring really add to the opportunities for more balanced research."

The U.S. government has tried to make access easier for students by easing some laws and giving priority interviews. But, with more schools competing for the top students, the security measures have discouraged many from applying at all.

It's no longer Harvard versus Yale. The competition is now much larger.

"It's the global economy now and it's not what it was 10 years ago," says Bailey-Mathae. "Everyone is competing."