US visa delays on the rise again
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.022887
Procedures instituted after the 11 September 2001 attacks require the US Department of Homeland Security, CIA, FBI, and other agencies to vet most scientists from countries whose citizens must obtain visas to enter the United States. In 2003, visa delays prompted scientific societies to warn of an erosion of U.S. competitiveness if top foreign talent were to eschew travel to the United States. By last year, U.S. security agencies had managed to whittle average visa-processing time for scientists from 7 weeks to 3 weeks.
It has since climbed back up to 8 weeks. “We are quite concerned about the possibility of seeing all the ground we made lost,” says Amy Scott, assistant vice president for federal relations at the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C.
