Chinese studying in US become ‘political cannon fodder’ as visa process tightens amid feud
- Some university students have been stuck in limbo as the waiting time for visas grows longer and the US government demands more information
- New Chinese student enrolment at US colleges and universities declines as the political climate sours
Albert Pi, in his second year of a PhD programme in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, endured an 85-day wait for his US visa while visiting family in Beijing over the winter break.
A trip meant to last only two weeks nearly turned into a permanent homecoming.
When he applied to the US embassy for his visa renewal, he never expected a wait that would nearly force him to give up on his programme.
“My biggest fear is I won’t be able to return to the US if my visa continues to be checked, to a point when MIT has to terminate my programme,” Pi, 24, said in March.
It was bad enough that he had to drop one class and wasn’t able to attend the American Physical Society’s annual meeting as he had planned.
The reason for the delay: “administrative processing”, a designation for visa applications undergoing additional vetting for security reasons.
