Malaysian students beware of stricter US visa policy for foreign students

By Manik Mehta

NEW YORK, Dec 26 (Bernama) -- Malaysian students interested to get higher education at a U.S. university or institution of learning need to familiarise themselves of the changes being made in the U.S. visa policy which has become more restrictive.

The new restrictive visa policy announced in August by the Trump administration on students interested, for example, to acquire “hands-on” experience in their field of specialisation on completion of their study, could have a deterrent effect on prospective students wanting to enter the U.S. for higher education.

Asian students, including from Malaysia, find it attractive to study subjects such as engineering, computer sciences, highly specialised branches of medicine, etc. in the U.S.   The Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, attracts a large Asian student population, particularly from China, India and, increasingly, from Malaysia.  China, India and South Korea account for some 56.1 per cent of all foreign students studying in the U.S.

“I am worried, to be honest, by the restrictions announced for students wanting to study in the United States…my dream has been to study in the U.S.  After I complete my education, I would like to gain some practical experience by working with a U.S. company for sometime before I return to Malaysia.  Will the new visa policy deny me what has been a long tradition followed by foreign students who are happy to get some practical training before returning to their native country?” a Malaysian student told Bernama, insisting that his name not be mentioned.

For 2017/2018, according to the U.S. Statistics Portal, the largest number of students in the U.S. came from China (363,431) and India (196,271).  Malaysia, with 8,271, was the second largest source of students from the ASEAN region after first-ranking Indonesia at 8,650.

Meanwhile, fearing that the new restrictions would deter foreign students from coming to the U.S. to pursue higher education, 65 U.S. universities, including big names such as Harvard and MIT, have taken up cudgels for foreign students, and joined hands to challenge in court Trump’s new restrictive visa policy governing foreign students.  The universities and colleges warn that the new restrictions will spell long-term damage for the country’s education system, with foreign students seeking higher education in Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.

Indeed, Harvard released last Friday an “amicus brief” voicing objections against U.S. visa policy changes announced in August restricting visa overstay rules for foreign students, and opposed U.S. revision of rules for calculating unlawful stay time for visa-holding students.

The amicus brief supports Guilford College, and others in the lawsuit against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen. The plaintiffs called for a temporary hold on new immigration policies that place restrictions on overstaying a visa. Under longstanding immigration policies, when an individual is no longer authorised to remain in the U.S. — such as when a visa expires — a period of “unlawful presence” begins. After six months of unlawful presence, an individual can be forced to return to their country of origin and subject to a three year bar from the U.S.

Prior to the August policy change, individuals only started maintaining an unlawful presence the day after the government officially determine that the visa holder was "out of status".

With the new rules, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can set retroactive start dates for unlawful presence beginning the day after an individual's degree programme is completed or the day after a person's visa expires.

The move would also economically hurt the U.S.  Universities and institutions of learning, for example, reap immense economic benefits from foreign students studying in the U.S.  According to the Association of International Educators (NAFSA), international students contributed over US$37 billion to the U.S. economy in 2017, creating more than 450,000 jobs, with every seven international students supporting three U.S. jobs.

But there is widespread consensus that the foreign students’ most valuable contribution is the intellectual capital.  Foreign students who studied at U.S. universities and then made significant economic and social contributions include Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and journalist Fareed Zakaria who is highly respected among U.S. and international viewers, etc.

A study of American startup companies with a value of US$1 billion or more, pointed out that nearly one quarter of such businesses had a founder who first came to the U.S. as an international student.

The backdating rule introduces significant uncertainty and punishes students for reasons that are frequently beyond the students' control.  Sometimes, students and exchange visitors can fall out of status because of clerical and technical errors, often because of someone else's making.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign students seeking admission to U.S. universities and other institutions has fallen for the second successive year.  According to the Institute of International Education, new foreign student registrations for the 2017/18 school year fell 6.6 per cent over 2016/17 when the number had declined by 3.3 per cent. 

Analysts specialising in education and immigration attribute the decline to the visa and immigration changes made by the Trump administration.

The decline was further aided by a strong dollar making U.S. education more expensive for foreign students.

-- BERNAMA