Video Message to Students Planning to Study in the United States this Year by David Donahue, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services

Text of Mr. Donahue available here.

Visa Donkey Chipmunk...

...apparently had to do with Soviets applying for exchange visas to the United States. Who knew! Anyone know why cables for the educational exchange officers in Moscow had “Visa Donkey Chipmunk” in the subject line? Is this still the same in Moscow?

I picked up this interesting international educational exchange factoid from the December 28, 2009 U.S. State Department “On-the-Record Briefing” when Ian Kelly, Department Spokesman, was answering questions about Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab (individual who attempted to bring down a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25^th) and the VISA VIPER cable issued by The United States Embassy in Abuja (Nigeria). You can read the entire press conference here but I have copied and pasted the relevant part of the Q&A that mentions “Visas Donkey Chipmunk” cables below:

QUESTION: What does VISAS VIPER mean? Is that some slick acronym?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, it’s not an acronym, no. It’s – I remember when I was in Moscow, they – it’s just a – it’s a tradition in the State Department. I was in Moscow and I was the educational exchanges officer, and I would get cables that were – the subject line was “Visas Donkey Chipmunk,” and it had to do with Soviets applying for exchange visas.

The U.S. Department of State Presents a Briefing for International Student Advisors and Study Abroad Advisors in Chicago

I received the following announcement via e-mail from the International Educators of Illinois group.:

Date: Monday, October 26, 2009
1:00 p.m. Information for International Student Advisors
2:00 p.m. Information for Study Abroad Advisors
University of Illinois at Chicago
1200 W. Harrison
Student Services Building, Conference Room B & C
Chicago, Illinois, 60607

The U.S. Department of State would like to invite you to an outreach event to share the news about our improvements with your community and reinforce the importance we attach to continued international exchanges.

International Student Advisors: The U.S. Department of State would like to invite you to an outreach event to discuss our efforts to attract foreign students and the U.S. visa process. While implementing many new security requirements following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department of State has also worked hard to provide the best possible service to legitimate students. We'd like to share the news about our improvements with your community and reinforce the importance we attach to continued international exchanges.

Study Abroad Advisors: The U.S. Department of State would like to invite you to discuss passports, travel safety information, and consular services available to American students studying abroad. This briefing will address the services available to U.S. citizens through U.S. Embassies and Consulates while they are abroad. The information presented at these briefings is extremely valuable to anyone working with students studying abroad. It is, however, of particular importance for program leaders who would be called upon to work with the Department of State if there were to be a calamitous natural disaster or terrorist event affecting their study site.

Please join us to learn about these issues. Although we cannot cover questions about specific cases, we will do our best to explain recent changes in the visa process and to answer any related questions.

Please RSVP to: Jennifer Fullick, jfullick@uic.edu
Questions? Please direct to: Paula Williams, williamspa2@state.gov

Map and driving directions may be obtained at:
http://www.uic.edu/index.html/maps_directions.shtml

Hosted By: Office of International Services at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Coalition of 30 Scientific, Academic and Engineering Groups Urge Obama Administration to take Further Steps on Visa Efforts

A joint statement by 30 scientific, academic and engineering groups praises the federal government on several past actions it has taken to address visa concerns held in both the academic and scientific communities but it also calls for the creation of a high-level interagency panel to review all post-September 11th visa policies.

Additionally, the organizations said that the federal government should build on these positive actions by taking a number of steps to improve the visa process further:

- Convene a high-level interagency panel to review the full range of visa-related policies and procedures imposed after 9/11, evaluate their cost-effectiveness, and consider revising or eliminating ineffective and unnecessary procedures.

- Provide additional resources to agencies involved in the visa process to allow timely processing of visa applications.

- Streamline the non-immigrant visa process to 30 days for legitimate graduate students, researchers, or professionals in science and technology whose applications are supported by a qualified university, scientific body, or company.

- Reduce repetitive processing of visa applications for well-known researchers and scholars who regularly visit the United States to attend academic conferences and conduct research.

- Increase training of consular staff to make treatment of applicants more consistent and enhance security.

- Provide more information to applicants who experience delays in the application process and establish a review process for applications that take more than 30 days to process.

- Review and streamline the Technology Alert List, which identifies sensitive areas of science and technology for possible export controls, to include only subject areas that have explicit implications for national security.

- Expand ongoing efforts to renegotiate visa reciprocity agreements between the United States and key sending countries, such as China, to extend the duration of visas each country grants students and scholars of the other and to permit multiple entries on a single visa.

The statements above were summarized and copied in part from the joint press release in the NAFSA: Association of International Educators Press Room which you can access here. You may also want to comment on this on the NAFSA Blog here.