CNN is reporting:
Many other news outlets are saying the same thing. So here is my very simple question: What were the rules before this?
When foreign students would enter the US, were they simply allowed in without having their visas checked? That would be so shocking, that I think I’m misunderstanding something.
Far as I can tell, students have always needed visas. Well, I mean, I think you could visit the US and decide on a whim to do a three day flower-arranging course or whatever, but actual academic studies - you need a visa and always have done.
I certainly needed a visa when I entered the US as a student in the 1980s. It had better be the right sort of visa too. A few years later I tried to enter for a few days to attend a conference using my still unexpired student visa, and was told it was not valid for such a use. (After keeping me hanging around for a bit the let me in anyway by granting me a visa waiver. This was in the 1980s, well before 9/11, but also at a time when visas were still required for British people entering the US and the use of waivers for short visits was not the norm.)
I don’t think the issue is students coming to the US without student visas- I think it’s poor reporting. The problem is that holders of unexpired visa have been able to leave the US and return after ceasing to be enrolled , which is supposed to cancel the visa. This is a better article
Indeed it is! Thanks!
And I in the 1990s. But sometimes you get a Customs Guy who’s a hardass, sometimes you get one who’s bored out of his mind, sometimes one who just doesn’t feel like working…
Story told before:
In 1997 I went to Mexico with a friend. We drove from Austin to Laredo, walked to Nuevo Laredo leaving my I-94’s stub in the US side’s Customs Office, as I had to do any time I exited the country. There was nobody in the guardhouse on the Mexican side. We took the bus to Monterrey, where we went to get our passports stamped at a Customs Office (hey, we wanted the souvenir); the people there were very interested to hear about the vacant guardhouse and asked whether we’d be willing to have our written reports taken (of course). Bussed back, walked back. I needed to fill a new I-94 and get my passport stamped again on re-entry: the woman in the US Customs Office said “you’re American, you don’t need a stamp!” “Sorry, I’m not, here, look, it’s maroon not navy, no eagle on the shield, it says ESPAÑA, see the wavy hat on the N? Not an English letter! Can I get a stamp now?” “You don’t need one!” We had to start asking for her supervisor before she’d give me the fucking stamp, without which I could have gotten deported at any time :smack:
Later that same day we got stopped by a US Marshal doing ID checks. Again he took a look at my redheaded, all-American friend and at southern-European me and declared us American. Ain’t no racism there, no way no how!
:dubious: IIRC student visa are valid for slightly longer (usually a few months) than the course they are enrolled in to permit a student to take any resits examinations, attend their graduation, generally wind down.
I’m not talking about the expiration date - cancellation is a different issue.It’s like the difference between my driver’s license expiring and being revoked. In my experience in other contexts , students are generally considered to be enrolled through exams, graduations, breaks between semesters, etc- enrollment doesn’t end on the last day of classes so it’s not as though the school reports you ceased attendance on the last day of classes and your visa is cancelled before graduation.
[quote[“According to Homeland Security Department officials, Mr. Tazhayakov left the United States in December and returned on Jan. 20, presenting a student visa with an expiration date of Aug. 30 of this year and a letter of enrollment from the University of Massachusetts. However, officials later discovered that the university had reported to the department that Mr. Tazhayakov’s enrollment had ended on Jan. 4.” [/quote]
Given the dates involved, it looks like he completed the fall semester, and the university reported that his enrollment ended when the spring semester began.