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FOREIGN SCHOLAR SERVICES
• Two-thousand three was highlighted by
implementation of the federal government’s
expansive efforts to implement the spirit of the
Patriot Act, including deployment of SEVISbased
forms production, mandatory registration
of individuals from most Muslim countries, the
fingerprinting and photographing of each visa
entrant, the introduction of compulsory interviews
for each visa applicant and the attendant,
broadly-interpreted discretion consular officers
were given to order background checks. Taken
separately each of these changes would have
generated enough activity to disrupt the regular
flow of business. Taken together, as they were
presented to us, these changes created some
fundamental obstacles to the flow of scholars to
Stanford in particular and to US institutions of
higher learning in general.
• The most obvious problem created by the new
security-conscious federal environment is the
significant delays engendered by background
checks. These checks are carried out following a
schedule of disciplines, professions and name
comparisons. While applicants from some
countries, such as China, are almost routinely
considered for a name check (likely due to the
paucity of Chinese surnames), others are
mysteriously delayed for weeks on the basis of
circumstances at which we can only guess.
Consular interviews, now required for every visa
applicant, are nothing new in countries such as
India; in other countries; however, the burden of
having to interview every applicant created
massive delays. Various sources of assistance
have been engaged, including the local member
of Congress as well as helpful employees of the
State Department itself. Unfortunately the
Department of Homeland Security now owns
the territory and defines the rules by which we
now do business.
• Departments, hosts and visitors are naturally
unhappy at the prospect of an exchange being
delayed indefinitely; some are ultimately denied
a visa and are unable to come to the US at all.
The literature tells us that international scholars
are beginning to turn to other countries for
academic exchanges. Britain, Canada, Australia
as well as Continental European countries are
becoming an attractive alternative as they
eagerly seek out international students and
scholars rather than submitting them to
harassing interview and background check
protocols. The Canadian Consul approached us
with a request to conduct a “poaching session,”
in which he described the litany of opportunities
and benefits that lie north of the border.
This session was very well attended, to our
gratification and, at once, dismay.
• We are obliged to focus our attentions and
efforts inward rather than conducting outreach
to the extent we would like. In this new and
difficult environment, we undertook a closer
relationship with Stanford’s external immigration
counsel, who is associated with the University
through the Office of the General Counsel.
Ms. Serafina Sands, a member of Pearl Law
Group, has helped us interpret aspects of the
law, which as non-attorneys we are not qualified
to do. She also undertakes those cases that lie
somewhat beyond the scope of what the
University is obliged to offer as a facilitating
condition of employment. In meetings with the
larger “immigration task group” comprising Ms.
Sands and interested members of the
University’s management, the essential Guide
Memorandum, 28.1, is being amended to define
more carefully the obligations and benefits of
Stanford’s immigration environment. We are
ambivalent about this in that the “visa infrastructure”
is being consolidated; at the same
time we are aware that we are beginning to be
regarded as an extension of the federal authority
that speaks to our national interest.
• Other institutions appear also to be concentrating
their efforts on the new technology and
procedures inherent in the Patriot Act. Our
quarterly meetings of California schools now
feature almost exclusively discussions of how
we are dealing with the procedural and technical
challenges created by some aspect of the
new order.
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