In the weeks following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, investigators discovered that at least two of the airplane hijackers had entered the US on student visas. In response some American leaders have advocated placing severe limitations on issuing such visas. California Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a six-month moratorium during which no new student visas would be granted.Though Feinstein recently dropped the moratorium proposal, legislation restricting student visas is still being considered.Others have proposed limiting what subjects non-Americans at US universities would be allowed to study.

In its rush to do something in response to the September 11 attacks, the US government may do more harm than good. The proposed restrictions would punish thousands of innocent university students around the world, including many Chinese students, and would do little to protect the United States from terrorists.

The truth is that the US student visa system does need reform,but the changes necessary are not the ones now being mooted in Washington. Rather, America should institute a fairer and more humane student visa system. My perspective on this issue comes from experience at Peking University,swheresI taught American contract law during the 2000-2001 academic year. Many of my students there hoped to study at an American university after graduating from Beida.

For young people who plan to work in the field of international corporate law and finance, it is undeniably a great advantage to study Anglo-American law abroad,swheresthey can see it in daily operation.Moreover, foreign students, in America as elsewhere, have the potential to bring nations closer together and benefit the entire world.United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is an example.A Ghanaian, Mr Annan earned degrees from two American schools, Macalester College in Minnesota and MIT.This past year Annan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.It may very well be that the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate from China is at this moment a student applying for admission to American universities.

But getting to a US university requires getting a student visa from an American embassy or consulate. For Chinese, the odds are stacked against them. In China the US embassy’s visa office rejects about 40 percent of student visa applications. Saudi Arabia, the home country of fifteen of the nineteen September 11 hijackers, provides an interesting contrast. According to a recent report published in The Washington Post, the American embassy in Saudi Arabia rejects only 3 percent of all applications for US visas.

In China virtually all of the student visa rejections are due to the so-called“intent to immigrate”rule. This rule prohibits issuing a student visa to any applicant who, in the opinion of the visa officer, intends to stay in America after finishing his or her studies. The intenttoimmigrate rule would make sense if it were limited to those who intended to use a visa as a means to immigrate illegally. Unfortunately there is no such limitation. The prohibition applies not only to future lawbreakers but also to those who intend to apply for legal residency .

If Chinese degree-holders were simply overstaying their visas and remaining in the United States illegally, the intent to immigrate criterion would be a valid one. But such is not the case. Chinese graduates of American universities do not simply disappearsintosthe population. With their advanced university degrees, these students are not interested in America’s underground job market of gardening, domestic help and the like. Instead, the students who stay do so legally. They are employed by American universities and corporations, who need the technical skills or professional expertise that the Chinese offer. The students’ American employers obtain legal employment visas for them.

Even if the student visa rules were fair, the way they are applied is not. Because Congress votes so little money for the State Department’s embassy operations, the visa offices at US embassies are terribly understaffed. As a result, visa interviews at the Beijing embassy in late summer last an average of just two minutes. Reports are commonplace of arbitrary decisions issued instantly by overworked officers; appeals may take a month or more to be heard.

I experienced this myself when a visa officer at the Beijing embassy refused to read a letter I had written on behalf of a student. According to my student, the officer said,“I don’t want to read any letter”, and then denied the application. After spending a year teaching my students about the American legal principle that everyone has a right to a fair hearing, I found it disheartening, to say the least, that my own government treats visa applicants with such callousness.

When Congress considers changing our current student visa system, it should resist the knee-jerk urge to pass laws imposing harsh restrictions on student visas. Such restrictions would be more likely to keep out future Kofi Annans than future terrorists.In the long term, establishing a more fair-minded and humane student visa system is the wiser course.

在9·11美国遭受恐怖主义分子袭击后的几周内，调查人员发现至少有两名劫机犯是持学生签证进的美国。对此，有的美国领导人主张对这类签证实行严格的限制。加州参议员黛安娜·范斯坦建议实行6个月的暂停期，在此期间不再发放新的学生签证。虽说范斯坦最近已经放弃了这一提议，但国会仍在考虑制定限制学生签证的法律，另一些议员则建议对外国学生在美国大学所学的科目加以限制。

9·11事件发生后美国政府急于做出反应，其所为有可能是弊大于利。那些提出来的种种限制，将使世界数千名无辜的大学生受到惩罚，其中也包括很多中国学生，而对保护美国免受恐怖分子袭击却于事无补。

事实上，美国的学生签证制度的确需要改革，但必要的改变并非是目前华盛顿所提出的那些，而是应该建立更公正更人道的学生签证制度。我对这一问题的看法源自我在北京大学时的经历。在2000-2001学年度，我在那儿教授美国合同法。我的很多学生都想在北大毕业后去美国留学。

对于打算将来在跨国公司法律和财务领域工作的年轻人来说，出国学习英美法对他们具有无可争辩的极大好处，他们可以看到这些法律的日常运作。此外，无论在美国还是其他国家，外国留学生具有潜在的能力，可以使国家间联系得更加密切，造福全世界，联合国秘书长安南就是一个范例。作为一个加纳人，他在两个美国大学——位于明尼苏达州的马卡里斯特学院与麻省理工学院——获得了学位。在刚刚过去的一年里，安南被授予了诺贝尔和平奖。中国第一个摘取诺贝尔桂冠的人很可能此时就是正在申请去美国大学读书的学生。

但是进美国大学需要从美国大使馆或领事馆得到签证。对于中国学生来说，情况则很不利。在中国，美国大使馆的签证官对40%的申请学生签证的人拒签；而沙特，19名9·11劫机者中15个人的故土，却提供了一个有意思的对比。根据最近《华盛顿邮报》的报道，美国在沙特的使馆对申请签证的人的拒签率只有3%。

在中国，几乎所有学生签证被拒的原因都是所谓的“有移民倾向”条款。这一条款禁止向那些在签证官眼中完成学业之后想留在美国的人发放学生签证。这一条款如果只限定针对那些打算利用签证而非法移民的人，那它是有意义的。然而令人遗憾的是，并没有这一限定。这一禁令不仅适用于那些未来的违法者，也适用于那些打算合法居住在美国的人。

如果拿到美国文凭的中国学生的所为就是使用过期签证而非法滞留在美国，那么评判移民倾向的标准是正确的，但情况并非如此。在美国大学毕业的中国学生并不是消失在人群中，手里有美国大学的高级学位的学生不会对美国的“黑工”例如当园丁、做家务等工作感兴趣。反之，留下的学生是有合法身份的。他们受聘于美国大学或公司，这些部门需要中国学生所提供的技能和专业知识。美国雇主为中国学生办理了合法的工作签证。

即便学生签证的法规是公正的，但它们所被执行的方式却不公正。由于美国国会投票决定的拨给国务院属下的使馆经费少得可怜，使馆签证处的工作人员严重不足。其结果，去年夏末在北京使馆的签证面谈时间平均只有两分钟。学生们的抱怨与以往没什么两样：负荷过重的签证官当即随意地做出决定。再次审请需要一个月甚至更长的时间。

我就经历过这种事——北京使馆的签证官拒绝阅读我代表一个学生所写的信。据我的学生所说，签证官说“我不想看任何信”，接着就拒签了。在教了一年有关美国法律原则也就是每个人都有公平申辩的权利之后，看到我的政府以这种冷漠态度对签证申请人，这让我——往最

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