International students looking to apply to American universities this fall will be facing stricter visa laws and new restrictions from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
A new rule will prohibit non-immigrants admitted to the United States with a visitor visa from pursuing a course of study before obtaining approval of a change to student status.
Under the rule, individuals that obtain visitor visas to tour a potential university must also state their intent to study at an American university when they initially apply for admissions to the United States.
If the individuals state their intent to become students, they will then be permitted to change their statuses.
This rule differs from the previous one, which allowed those with visitor visas to apply to universities and obtain the student visa after enrolling in a university.
"They gave me a year in the U.S.," said David Walsh (nondegree), an international student from Australia, in regard to the old rules. "When I applied Penn State had to send a letter to my university, and I had to take the letter to the consulate."
For international students looking to attend Penn State, this new policy might not cause many problems.
"Most of our students come on student visas," said Masume Assaf, assistant director of international programs and foreign student adviser.
While the new rules might not affect prospective students, it might have an effect on their parents, Assaf said.
Under another rule proposed by the INS, visitors will only be permitted admission to the United States for the amount of time needed to accomplish the purpose of the trip.
If the visitors are unable to state the amount of time needed in the country, the INS will grant admission for a maximum of 30 days.
For parents of international students, this might become a problem, although it is unclear what the exact rules will be and the effect they will have, Assaf said.
Officials from the intensive English program, which teaches English as a second language to non-native English speakers, also do not expect to face many problems.
"We deal with very small numbers of students like that," said Ann Frentzen, director of the intensive English program.
"For a program like ours, a student can't come in with a tourist visa and take long term classes," she said, adding that the classes offered through the program are short term.
But she said the program is waiting for more information on the rule before telling students exactly what to do.
"We are waiting for clarification for what people that want to study English part-time for a short duration are able to do," she said.
