SAN FRANCISCO, September 25, (THEWILL) – In what appears to be another assault on foreign students especially from developing countries seeking to study in the United States, the Donald Trump administration is proposing changes to its study visas by limiting student visas to two years to citizens of Nigeria and 58 other countries.
The move if successful will make it difficult for citizens of these countries to complete a college degree in the United States without complicating the process.
Since his election, President Trump has promoted policies that target countries with people of colour.
The proposed rule, published by the Department of Homeland Security, will have foreign students from the affected countries reapply for an extension of their visas after two years. The Department said the new rule would make it easier to monitor compliance and identity security threats from the countries it has marked as state sponsors of terror.
The countries are: Afghanistan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (DRC) Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, and Kosovo.
Others are Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turmenistan, Tuvalu Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen and Zambia.
During the 2018-2019 academic year, more than 24,000 Vietnamese, 13,000 Nigerians, 13,000 Nepalese, and 12,000 Iranians were enrolled in US universities, according to the Open Doors report from the Institute of International Education.
Foreign students who are not from any of the affected countries but are enrolled in schools that are unaccredited or do not participate in the federal employment eligibility verification program E-Verify would also only be eligible for a two-year visa.
Targeting countries with high visa overstay rates means targeting African countries
The majority of people who overstay their visa in the US are from China, India, Brazil, and Canada — none of which are impacted by the proposed rule. Rather, it targets primarily students from African countries, according to a report by Vox.com.
The countries with the highest visa overstay rates, with the exception of Syria and Nigeria, actually account for only a small proportion of total annual visa overstays.
In fiscal year 2019, Burundi, for example, had a 44 percent visa overstay rate for students and exchange visitors — one of the highest worldwide. But it accounted for only 127 of the more than 60,000 total estimated overstays. China, by comparison, had a less than 2 percent overstay rate in those visa categories, but as the top-sending country for foreign students, it accounted for more than 11,000 overstays.
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