The GEO is currently circulating a petition urging IL Congressmen to advocate for international graduate students by supporting visa-immigration reform. Currently a number of UIUC international graduate students have experienced difficulty visiting families overseas, attending academic conferences abroad, and continuing their studies without interruption.
International GEO members have joined a coalition of domestic and international grads from a number of research universities (Yale, Columbia, Michigan, etc.) in advocating for a more efficient process and multiple-entry visas for grads from China, Iran and other countries.
To assist in this campaign by circulating petitions or participating in the GEO International Caucus contact the GEO office at geo@uigeo.org.
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For more information visit:
http://www.visareform.net/
http://columbia.edu/cu/cucssa/news/visa/checkee_list.html
The Petition Letter to the IL Congressional Delegation
To: Senator Richard Durbin
Senator Barack Obama
Representative Tim Johnson
As you may be aware, visa restrictions and lengthy security checks have created an increasingly difficult situation for international students, post-doctoral scholars, and other academics studying and working in the United States. Such students and scholars often find it difficult to:
* visit family at home, even to attend funerals or weddings, leading to long periods of separation from parents, spouses, and children;
* attend academic conferences necessary for advancing their research and professional development
* continue their studies and research without lengthy interruptions, or the threat of lengthy interruptions, due to delays in the security-check process
While recognizing the importance of security concerns, we believe that the research and teaching interests of U.S. universities would be best served by eliminating the unnecessary delays caused by many current visa policies and procedures.
With that in mind, we urge you to:
* create a more efficient and streamlined security-check process,
* work to make longer-term re-entry visas and multiple-entry visas available to scholars from China, Iran, and other countries who cannot currently obtain them,
* create provisions that would allow international students, post-doctoral scholars, and other academics to change their visa status or renew their visas without leaving the country,
* allow international graduate students to begin their national security checks while in the United States, and allow federal agencies to check and approve security status before the student leaves the country.
Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.
Sincerely,
the Undersigned