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email Remarks at the Education Summit
Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty
“Facilitating Student Travel”
Remarks at the Education Summit
Loy Henderson Auditorium
January 6, 2006
11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I am so pleased to be here today, to see those of you with whom we have frequently discussed the important issues surrounding ways to facilitate the travel of legitimate students to the U.S. Sarah Kendall and I will each speak for a few minutes and will then welcome your questions. As Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, I oversee the work of close to 8,000 consular employees around the world. Our major responsibilities are to provide visa services to foreign visitors or immigrants, and passport services to U.S. citizens. We are also responsible for the protection and welfare of Americans abroad – if they are hurt, become ill, or are involved in a natural disaster such as last year’s South Asia tsunami, it is consular officers who work around the clock to get them out of harm’s way. In performing each of these major functions, we are very aware of the privilege we have of touching people’s lives. Be it helping an American in a heart-rending situation, or a foreign student interested in learning about us, consular officers serve on the front lines of our nation’s diplomatic efforts in tending to those needs. In the case of foreigners who would like to visit our country, there is no more important message than what the president said yesterday. Our country is stronger when we welcome young people here. And, we must balance security needs with our historic openness to others.
We have a great deal of good news to share with you about what the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security are doing to facilitate the travel of foreign students to the United States. But if you walk away from this summit with a single message from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, I hope it is this: we recognize that one of the foundations of the U.S. academic and scientific communities is vibrant international participation. We are keenly aware that America’s outstanding academic and research institutions are as valuable to U.S. national security as the overt protection of our borders. With this in mind, we have dedicated ourselves over the last three years to ensuring that the visa application process is as transparent and efficient as possible, and to informing students all over the world that the United States is the welcoming place it always has been.
Thomas Jefferson personally exemplified America’s commitment to enlightenment and to broadening access to education. He wrote eloquently about the role that education should play in securing the blessings of liberty for our nascent republic, as well as for people around the globe. He had a foot in both of our worlds: he was a diplomat – serving as minister to France and of course as our first Secretary of State – and he was the founder of a great university. In 1822, Thomas Jefferson wrote to one of his frequent correspondents,
“I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the conditions, promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of man.”
The men and women of the Department of State share this conviction and have seen with our own eyes the difference that education can make in an international context. As Secretary Rice noted during her keynote address last evening, we believe deeply in the importance of international education and exchange. Many of us have studied or lived abroad, and more of us have education backgrounds in international affairs. All of us who serve overseas learn quickly that understanding and tolerance are fostered by common experience. We appreciate the value of interacting with foreign leaders who are personally familiar with the United States. In fact, like you, we strive to identify young people with leadership potential and encourage them to study in the United States so that their understanding of our nation is fostered at an early stage.
We believe that the best advertisement for America is America. There is no better way to learn about the United States than to live and study and work with Americans in this great country of ours. The loss of this opportunity for even a single student is a loss we are not prepared to bear.
In fact, it is with the individual student in mind that we have dedicated our efforts during a period of unprecedented change in visa practices. Naturally, in the aftermath of the terrible attacks of September 11, we had to act quickly to forge as strong a shield as possible against those who would do us harm. The necessity for enhanced border security continues to inform our efforts every single day, as we heard President Bush say yesterday. We are mindful that terrorists have struck innocents in places like bail, Madrid, London, Amman, and here in America. Thus, working closely with our colleagues in the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies, we have devoted our attention and resources to ensuring that our nation’s visa and immigration policies facilitate the travel of legitimate students.
I had the privilege of beginning my tenure as Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs in November of 2002. I understood that security-related delays were having the unintended consequence of discouraging visa applicants. Many of you reached out to me to make your concerns known and I want to thank you for your ideas, your concerns, and your perseverance. In response, we set about gleaning every efficiency we could out of our then-existing business process to resolve those concerns as quickly as possible. We invested heavily in our security namecheck system to cut the processing time. We created over 500 new positions specifically to address the increased workload at our visa processing operations overseas. Together with others across the federal government, we have been aggressive in reaching out to prospective students and academic groups to promote U.S. higher education opportunities.
We have successfully negotiated several extended reciprocity agreements so that students need apply for a visa less frequently. Students now have more – and more accurate – information available to plan their travel since we completely renovated our website, travel.state.gov, and we have worked with U.S. education advising centers to inform prospective students about the process. And because we understand how important our role is in getting students to their academic, research or exchange program on time, we have made the processing of student and exchange visitor visas a priority at every single embassy and consulate around the world for the past three years. Although there are variations on the theme at individual consulates, each knows that we must have a way to get students to the front of the line.
Outdated perceptions regarding changes to visa processing could not be more different from today’s reality. As the saying goes, bad news travels around the world seven times before good news gets up and has breakfast. Well, our good news is getting ready for dinner but, sadly, we are still encountering persistent stories about inefficiencies and delays that - in the overwhelming majority of cases - are a thing of the past.
Here is just one example. I often hear that since 9/11 it is much more difficult to get a visa for students who are genuinely interested in furthering their education in the United States. Nothing could be further from the truth. We did not curtail or “ration” the number of student visas available anywhere. In fact, there is no numerical limit on the number of student visas we can issue, nor did we change the student visa criteria to make it more difficult to qualify. Fewer students have applied since the dreadful attacks on our nation, but there are many reasons for that decline. International competition is rigorous. Our processes, while better every day, did deter some students. But I am determined that you will see the strength of our commitment through the success of our efforts.
The fact is that our metrics are quite positive. As Secretary Rice mentioned last evening, the overwhelming majority of those found qualified to receive a visa – 97 percent – receive them within a couple of days. Even for the small fraction of applicants who require additional processing for security reasons, we have reduced the processing time from weeks, months, sometimes never – to less than 14 days. And while there will always be individual cases that take longer, we are determined to move them as expeditiously as possible, and continue to look for ways to do so.
I am happy to report that the number of student visas issued in FY 2005 rose about 8.7 percent from the year before, slightly exceeding FY 2002 levels.
Am I completely satisfied with the result of our efforts to date? Of course not. We will continue to seek ways, within the context of the law, to streamline where possible. But public diplomacy is a crucial element of our efforts as well. And by that, I do mean all of us. We are natural allies. Together we must tell students everywhere that America is open to them. Try us. You’ll like us. The welcome mat is out.
My bottom line is that we do not want the visa process to be perceived as an impediment to study in the U.S. We will continue to hone our efforts so that visa services are provided in a timely and courteous manner. And we will devote ourselves to getting this message across to prospective students. To quote Thomas Jefferson again,
“Light and liberty go together.”
By balancing the border security needs of this nation with our central commitment to openness, we strengthen our own liberty and share its wonders with the world.
Now I would like to invite Ms. Kendall to speak to you for a few moments about the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security to make sure that America’s doors remain open even as our borders become more secure. And then we will both be happy to entertain your questions.