Visa problems among foreign students pursuing graduate physics studies in the US continue but have eased a bit in the past couple of years, according to a new report by the American Institute of Physics. In the fall of 2004, some 12% of admitted foreign students faced delays of at least six weeks or were denied entry to the US due to visa complications, down from 20% two years earlier.
In the fall of 2004, about half of PhD-granting departments and one-third of master’s departments had at least one no-show among their expected foreign students. The difficulty in entering the country varied with the type of institution students planned to attend. Compared with the fall of 2002, 37% fewer top-ranking and 21% fewer second-tier departments reported visa problems in 2004 among their incoming foreign students, while small PhD and master’s programs saw more modest drops of 7% and 11%, respectively....
