News Update - November 26, 2007Department of State Announces Increase in Student Visa Issuance and Assistance in ProcessingThe Department of State signaling its commitment to attracting
the best and brightest students, announced that it issued over 651,000
student and exchange visas in fiscal year 2007, an increase of 10%
over the previous year and 90,000 more than it had issued in fiscal
year 2001. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that Embassy
and Consular officials are being proactive and visiting college
fairs, meeting with prospective students and offering special appointments
to help ensure students do not miss classes while waiting to be
processed. The Department of State said in a press release that
international students are choosing the U.S. as a premier destination
for higher education. This release comes weeks after the European
Union announced its plans to issue “blue cards” for
students to study among the member nations in its bid to attract
the best and brightest and perhaps even students from the U.S. (The
blue cards were mentioned in our news update of 11/3/07). † The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2007 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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