Recently the Department of State issued a document meant to guide consular officers in interpreting the immigrant intent provisions as they process student visa requests. According to the guidelines, while processing an applicant’s request for a student visa, the consular officer should evaluate the applicant’s ability to maintain a residence in the United States for the duration of his or her stay and the officer should focus on the applicant’s immediate to near-term intent. In most visa classifications (B, F, J, M, O-2, P, and Q) the applicant is required to submit proof that s/he possesses a residence abroad that s/he has not intent of abandoning after having obtained a U.S. visa. The purpose of travel should always be the deciding factor in determining the proper visa classification, and because students typically stay in the U.S. for a longer period of time than many other non-immigrant visitors their intent is to be adjudicated based on their present intent. In other words, what they are planning to do after having arrived in the U.S. with a visa and how long they are planning to stay.

Normally a non-immigrant visitor’s “ties” are useful in evaluating his or her application; however, a student visitor usually will not have many ties as they are typically young, without employment, without family dependents, and without substantial personal assets. In addition, students may only have general plans for their future. Thus, a student’s residence abroad requirement should be considered in a broader light and should focus solely on the student’s immediate intent.

A student’s intended course of study should not be a deciding factor in whether or not the student receives a visa, even if the student plans on studying a subject for which there is little employment opportunity in the student’s home nation. In addition, the type of school (community college, English language schools, 4-year universities, etc.) cannot be taken into account when adjudicating an application. Other factors that are not allowed to be deciding factors include the availability of the same program of study in the student’s home nation and the fact that the training the student would receive in the U.S. would not be of use in the student’s homeland. Consular officials are also instructed to give students ample opportunity and encouragement to return home during their period of study so that they can retain strong ties there. Officials are also instructed to grant returning students the appropriate visas so that students can travel freely back and forth between the U.S. and their home nation. However, when granting a student visa, consular officials must determine the student’s immediate intent to depart the U.S. at the end of his or her program of study.