Realizing the Rice-Chertoff Vision: A National-Interest-Based Visa Policy for the United States

NAFSA: Association of International Educators, along with a diverse coalition of organizations concerned about the current state of U.S. visa policy and its impact on the country’s competitiveness as a destination of choice for academic, exchange, and business visitors from around the world today announced a new set of visa policy recommendations.

Entitled “Realizing the Rice-Chertoff Vision: A National-Interest-Based Visa Policy for the United States,” the new policy proposal emphasizes the important role that visa policy plays in both the security of the United States and its capacity to attract the best talent from other countries, whether to study, conduct research, or do business. While acknowledging the progress that has been made over the past several years to address serious problems in the visa issuance process, the coalition recommendations highlight several areas in which serious barriers remain that hamper the ability of legitimate visitors to come to the United States.

Related Documents

View Feb. 2007 State Department Response to Recent Visa Recommendations (282kb )
The State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs sent a response to NAFSA regarding the recommendations contained in the “Realizing the Rice-Chertoff Vision: A National-Interest-Based Visa Policy for the United States” document, which NAFSA, along with a diverse coalition of organizations, released on January 31. NAFSA continues to dialogue with the State Department on these important efforts

View NAFSA's annotated visa recommendations
First published in April 2004, these annotated recommendations provide a record of NAFSA's ongoing advocacy on visa policy reform for international students and scholars.