Information and resources for the UW-Madison community
Message from the Provost's Office
The
issue
The USA Patriot Act and other federal regulations put in place as part
of the new national security system have significantly affected international
travel into the United States. The U.S. State Department has amended its process
for issuing visas to include additional security checks and background clearances.
In most cases, individuals seeking visas to enter the U.S. will be required
to have personal interviews with U.S. embassy personnel.
Given the limited personnel available to process the visa requests and related
requirements, we expect that many of UW-Madison’s international students,
faculty, staff and visiting scholars are likely to face significant delays in
receiving their visas. It is likely that some will be unable to arrive on campus
for the start of the new academic year, and we will face unfortunate uncertainties
in how to make appropriate arrangements with issues such as teaching assignments,
course enrollments, housing contracts and many other details.
As soon as the university was made aware of the new government procedures, a Task Force on International Entry Delays was formed and charged with helping us prepare for their impact.
International entry delay core principles
UW–Madison has issued the following statement of core principles for
dealing with international entry delay problems:
UW-Madison is, and must remain, a global community. Our students, staff and faculty reflect an enormous breadth of social and cultural diversity, which long has been instrumental in pushing the frontiers of our research and teaching into every corner of the world. This legacy faces a daunting new challenge, the potential for significant delays and interruptions in the ability of foreign nationals to gain—or retain—admittance to the United States to work and study. As a community, we must recognize that this challenge originates with governmental legislation designed to improve national security; we must continue to educate our elected leaders on the deleterious impacts of this legislation on the educational mission; and, most importantly, we must all work together to meet this challenge, not merely to sustain our global stature, but to grow this signature element of our institutional heritage.
Simply stated, we must anticipate that some of the students, staff and faculty that we have invited to join our community will be delayed in getting federal approval to be here. The extent and frequency of these delays is unpredictable. We can also anticipate that, in some instances, federal officials will ask people already here to leave the country, and we may never know the reasons for such extreme actions. The personal, emotional and programmatic implications of this new regulatory environment are immense. What we can do, and must do, is institute principles of action that will guide all of us to assist those individuals who are affected.
In every instance, the following principles of action should serve as guidelines:
- Maintain open and helpful lines of communication with each person involved, including the foreign national, his or her advisor, and, as applicable, course instructors, department chairs, principal investigators, etc.
- Be flexible in attempting to accommodate delays whenever possible, and creative in managing the effects of delays on assumption of employment, participation in classes and the like, so long as these effects can be reconciled responsibly with the integrity of the academic/research mission. (Do the same with respect to individuals who have been instructed to leave the country.)
- Make liberal use of a network of resources coordinated through International Student Services and International Faculty and Staff Services.
- Understand and expect a wide range of personal and professional frustrations to be expressed about nearly every facet of this new regulatory regime.
In the end, our campus can meet this challenge, which now confronts every college and university in the country. Our success will reflect our resolve to be as helpful as possible to every person whose entry is delayed or is asked to leave the country.
Virginia Sapiro
Associate Vice Chancellor
Chair, Task Force on International Entry Delay