At Berkeley, Ms. Law says that visa denials for visiting Chinese scholars jumped from two last year to 12 this year. About 220 visiting scholars from China conduct research at the university each year. Those who were denied visas this year were told either that they did not provide evidence of sufficient financial support or that they had failed to prove they would return to China. Two applicants were denied visas over technology concerns, but both were later approved after the university protested. What is clear is that the current visa process is widely disliked.
Observers say it is cumbersome, inefficient, and unfair.
All to try to get people here who are going to contribute to the academic environment. Others said they were challenged because their English was not good enough. At one Midwestern university, a Chinese couple who enrolled as doctoral students in the fall of 1998 tried to bring their daughter here from China this past spring. Their first attempt did not succeed, they were told, because the girl failed to prove she had sufficient ties to her homeland. She was 2 years old.