Administration Unveils Plan for Reviewing Foreign Students Pursuing Sensitive Areas of Study

On May 7, 2002, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) briefed NAFSA and other higher education representatives on its intention to implement "an enhanced mechanism for visa review," on a case-by-case basis, in sensitive areas of science and technology that are "uniquely available in the United States," with a view to identifying those individuals who would use this uniquely available knowledge to harm the United States or its allies. OSTP indicated that there would be no list of proscribed majors or courses and no additional reporting through SEVIS, and that it expected that graduate and postdoctoral students would be the ones primarily affected by the new review procedures.

The enhanced visa review will be conducted by an Interagency Panel on Advanced Science and Security (IPASS), which will be established by executive order or presidential directive. The panel - to be composed of government representatives from science, intelligence, law enforcement, and education agencies and chaired by the Departments of State and Justice - will review visa applications for study in sensitive areas that are referred to it by the Department of State and will provide an advisory opinion to the State Department, which will retain its visa decision-making authority. Although the emphasis of IPASS will be at the border, IPASS may also review and provide advisory opinions on cases referred to it by the INS where students already in the United States advance or transfer to graduate or post-doctoral levels of study in sensitive areas. 

Variables that IPASS will use in rendering its advisory opinion will include: the individual's background and education and training, the country the individual is from, the area of research involved, and the nature of the work being conducted at the educational institution that the individual proposes to attend. 

As OSTP describes it, this will in effect constitute a refinement of the Technology Alert List that currently guides visa decision making for applicants wishing to study advanced science and technology in the United States. The TAL process will be revised to include the category of science and technology uniquely available in the United States and to provide for the referral of certain cases to IPASS. 

IPASS will continuously assess which sensitive areas of science and technology are emerging, where they are available, and which terrorist organizations might be trying to access them.  The list of such areas would presumably be dynamic, with new areas being added to the list and areas that have ceased to be uniquely available in the United States being deleted.  Higher education participants in the briefing stressed the importance of close involvement of the science and technology community in this process, perhaps in a formal advisory role.  OSTP officials expressed a desire to stay connected with this community, and seemed open to discussion of a more formal process for its input.

The higher education community responded favorably to the OSTP briefing, although many details and procedural issues have yet to be worked out. The plan takes into account--and largely mirrors--the recommendations made by NAFSA in its November 27, 2001, concept paper that was submitted to OSTP. NAFSA believes that, in its general outline, the plan constitutes an appropriate response to President Bush's instructions and is sensitive to the reality that scientific openness is part of national security, not different from it.