The J-1 visa process has become too complex and expensive.
Costs of New Rule
Cordell Hull
Foundation for
International Education
chfny@aol.com
Phone:  212.300.2138
Fax:       646.349.3455
cordellhull@aol.com
www.cordellhull.net

501 Fifth Avenue
Suite 300
New York, NY  10017
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-  Prevent Homeland Security or other agencies from piling on more visa fees.  $180 +++).  Foreign students
and other EVs are eschewing educational opportunities in the US for other countries that are more
welcoming and erect fewer bureaucratic hurdles.  The US is losing face plus millions of dollars of
contributions that temporary visitors make to our economy.* (see below)

Inputting EAD – Dependent Employment Authorization information into SEVIS
Redundant work for J-1 sponsors.  SEVIS (Department of Homeland Security) should input Employment
Authorization data into the database at the time that they approve and issue J-2 dependent work permits.  It
seems to us to make little sense to burden J-1 exchange sponsors with this additional inputting task, and it
should not be the sponsor’s responsibility to gather this information.  There are already more forms and
procedures required for 15 categories of J visas than Homeland Security and State Department personnel
can properly track.
Foreign graduate students are increasingly seeking MBA degrees in other countries, according to an
analysis released this week by the Graduate Management Admission Council.  The analysis notes that
between 2005 and 2009, the demand for business education grew 75 per cent in Asia, compared with
25 per cent in Europe, 30 per cent in North America, and 43 per cent in the Middle East and Africa.

*A Chronicle of Higher Education article on the GMAC study notes, “Foreign students who previously
flocked to the United States may be discouraged by the poor economy, weaker job prospects, and
restrictions on work visas this year.”

“The ‘patriotism and chauvinism’ of some American politicians ‘are making it harder to come to this
country to study,’ said David A. Wilson, president and chief executive of the Graduate Management
Admission Council. ‘People are saying, Why bother?’”

Still, it must be noted that approximately 80 per cent of all graduate business students, both American
and foreign, choose to attend programs in the United States.

by Mark Overmann
Assistant Director & Senior Policy Specialist
Alliance for International Education and Cultural Exchange
MOvermann@alliance-exchange.org