The US Immigration and Naturalization Service has been plagued with embarrassing incidents that are directly related to the approval of student visas, incidents which could change the process for students throughout the country who are here for legitimate reasons.The first incident, discovered March 11, involves the approval of student visas of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. The approval notice came exactly six months to the day of the attacks. Mohammed Atta, 33, of Egypt and Marwan El-Shehhi, 23, of the United Arab Emirates were approved for pilot training at Huffman Aviation, a flight school located in Florida. Both men were on separate planes that struck the towers.

Then on March 23 the INS admitted four Pakistani men to the U.S. on visa waivers by approval of the Norfolk, Virginia INS office without the use of the procedures put into place after the Sept. 11 attacks. The men had arrived in the U.S. as crew members aboard a Russian tanker.

These incidents have already affected the way international students obtain their documentation from the government, and more changes are expected. Paula Swonguer, the international student advisor, said “I think they will be doing more checking. The process will be tighter. Students from certain countries will be cross-checked with certain agencies to maintain security. Students who have everything in order should not have too many problems.”

Some students have expressed their own concerns. Although he agrees with the fact that national security must be considered, Sophomore Ricky Gandhi feels that if visa programs are changed, there will be problems. “Getting international students is a big priority for colleges and universities in the U.S. Foreign students are even bigger at graduate and postgraduate level. Though I don’t remember the exact figures, I recall reading somewhere that over 50% of students in graduate schools in the U.S. are International students. They are a very important source of revenue to these universities. If the U.S. government decides to cut down on student visas, these and many other issues will have to be considered,” he said.

International students as a whole are already feeling the effects of the problems within the INS.

“International students are already feeling the effects of 9/11. I just received an e-mail from our international student advisor that we have to send an 8843 form to INS to inform them that we are students and not residents here,” said junior Cindy Liu. “We never had to do that before. Right now we are still waiting for other changes, as the process of gaining a student visa will no doubt be more complicated than ever.