On the Friday before finals, most students are burrowed away prepping for tests or hiding from the cold. But the Ohio University International Student and Faculty Services office bustles with students fretting over pinky-thick stacks of Visa forms in preparation for their winter break travels.
For international students, going home for the holidays is a lot more than a car ride back to Columbus. With new Visa regulations - which went into effect January 2003 - some worry that traveling outside of the United States means not being able to return.
Some students who would go home
won't go home because they are afraid of getting Visas said Alan Boyd, director of International Student and Faculty Services.
About one-third of Ohio University's 1,150 international students return home during break, Boyd said.
Many international students have unlimited entry, five-year Visas, said Bill Strassberger, Department of Homeland Security spokesman. But students from countries that have a rocky relationship with the United States have Visas that last only a few months. For example, a Chinese student has six months from the day the Visa is issued to arrive in the United States. Students from Afghanistan have only three.
As long as international students are enrolled full time, they can remain in the country, Strassberger said.
An expired Visa only becomes an issue when a student seeks reentry into the United States. If these students travel home during the break, they must reapply before returning to Athens. This used to mean filling out some paperwork, but now students have to appear for an in-person interview. It may take several weeks to get an appointment, Strassberger said.
Students from countries the government says sponsor terrorism - Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Syria, Libya and N. Korea - must undergo a more thorough background check, said Kelly Shannon, a state department spokeswoman. In 2002, four students from these countries studied at OU.
Those who study a field on the state department's technology alert list must undergo further investigation. The list comprises many science and computer majors - from nuclear engineering to marine science to urban planning. A student of urban planning would have the knowledge to poison a city's water supply.
Shannon would not comment on how long students who meet these criteria need to reapply for a Visa.
The changes in the law affect students' decisions to travel during the break.
No one from the Athens Islamic Center, which is mostly international students, has traveled home since the new regulations, Ibrahim Fahed, a Saudi Arabian graduate student, said. Before, about 60 percent would use the break to visit family.
Not wanting to take the risk, Fahed, whose two-year Visa expired, is waiting until he finishes his degree to return home. The state department will not give him an estimate on how long the reapplication process takes.
They don't say anything. They don't say how long it takes
he said. They say
'go back home and give us your number and we will give you a call within six to eight weeks.' And then they don't call.
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Emily Patterson
