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Chinese students accounted for 35 per cent of all the international students in the US in the 2019-20 school year. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese students: US embassy, consulates resume visa processing

  • Several hundred applicants expected to arrive for processing on Tuesday and staff will be on hand to help them, acting US consul general William Bistransky says
  • Resumption shows Americans ‘welcome foreign students into our homes or communities or universities’, he says

The US embassy and consulates in China will resume visa appointments for students on Tuesday, but restrictions on those with a “hi-tech” background will remain in place, according to a senior official.

William Bistransky, acting consul general at the US embassy in Beijing, told a press briefing on Friday that more than 3,000 online applications were submitted in the first hour of opening.

The resumption of visa appointments was sending a signal to Chinese students that Americans “welcome foreign students into our homes or communities or universities”, he said.

Several hundred applicants were expected to arrive for processing on Tuesday and more than 100 visa officers and 150 Chinese support staff would be on hand to help them, he said.

By the middle of the month, the missions should be handling about 2,000 applications a day, he said.

While the vast majority of students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics would receive their visas, some with a hi-tech background would require extra screening, Bistransky said.

The US embassy and consulates in China will resume visa appointments for students on Tuesday. Photo: AP
Last week, the US State Department announced an easing of coronavirus-related travel restrictions on students looking to commence their studies in the autumn.

According to the International Education Exchange, Chinese students accounted for 35 per cent of all the international students in the US in the 2019-20 school year.

In May last year, the US under Donald Trump issued a ban on Chinese postgraduate students and researchers from studying or working in the US if they had previously been affiliated with China’s military-civil fusion strategy. The aim was to prevent Chinese spies getting access to US technologies.

This restriction would remain in place, Bistransky said.

Are Chinese students a threat to US security?

According to the US State Department, journalists and academics associated with exchange visitor programmes, and travellers from Brazil, Britain, China, Iran, Ireland, the Schengen Area and South Africa “who provide vital support for critical infrastructure” would also be allowed entry to the US under the “national interest exception” scheme.

The announcement came more than a year after the US suspended entry for people who had been in mainland China 14 days before their arrival. US citizens, permanent residents and immediate family members arriving from Hubei province – the initial epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic – also had to be quarantined for 14 days, while those travelling from other parts of China were subjected to “proactive entry screening” and self-quarantine.

The State Department said students with valid F-1 and M-1 visas who wanted to start an academic programme from August 1 onwards were exempt from the national interest exception scheme. They would be allowed to enter the US up to 30 days before the start of their studies, making the earliest entry date July 2.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: U.S. to resume visas for students
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