Visa restrictions hamper research

Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 2:32 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

According to this editorial in the SJ Mercury, our national security is
being threatened because too many security checks are being done on
foreign scientists. The call to make security checks more efficient is
really a demand to rubber stamp more visas.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/5357048.htm

Posted on Mon, Mar. 10, 2003

Visa restrictions hamper research

NATION GETS MORE BUREAUCRACY, NOT MORE SECURITY, AS AGENCIES KEEP
FOREIGN SCIENTISTS OUT, WHICH ENDANGERS TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP

EFFORTS by the U.S. government to tighten controls on foreign visitors
are creating a growing mess that threatens the nation's -- and Silicon
Valley's -- leadership in business, science and technology.

As reported by the Mercury News' Glennda Chui, post Sept. 11 security
concerns have led to tighter visa restrictions that are keeping some
foreign scientists from coming into the United States for legitimate
purposes.

Visa delays of months, and seemingly arbitrary visa denials, have also
affected engineers, computer scientists and business executives,
threatening the operations of any company of global reach.

The stories are troubling: a Chinese AIDS researcher living in the
United States was unable to return to his job at a Fremont biotech
company after a trip overseas; Russian physicists weren't granted visas
in time to join a training program in Monterey on safeguarding nuclear
weapons; an Iranian expert on new techniques to secure buildings
against earthquakes was scared off by the visa gauntlet and opted to go
to Canada, instead of UC-Berkeley.

Things are in such disarray that the National Institutes of Health is
informally warning its foreign scientists and doctors, roughly half of
the institution's total, that they might not be allowed back into the
United States after visiting their home countries. The presidents of
the National Academies say visa restrictions have caused cancellations
and disruptions of important international scientific meetings, which
are at risk of being moved overseas.

The answer is not to eliminate security checks, but to do them
efficiently.

A 2002 report by the General Accounting Office painted a troubling
picture of visa operations, which are run by the State Department.
Consular offices in charge of issuing visas around the world were still
adapting to a shift from screening primarily against potential illegal
immigrants to screening against potential terrorists. The criteria used
were vague and applied differently from office to office. Necessary
sharing of information between consular offices, intelligence agencies
and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now absorbed by the
Department of Homeland Security, was slow and spotty.

As a result, increased screening is giving us more bureaucracy, not
more security.

Unless these agencies quickly address these problems, businesses,
universities, research labs, scientific institutions and the United
States as a whole will pay a heavy price.

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