American Competitiveness through International Openness Now (ACTION) Act of 2005

On February 17, Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) introduced legislation to reverse the decline in the number of international students studying at American colleges, universities, and high schools. The bill, S. 455, is known as the ACTION Act of 2005 and was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This bill is an updated version of last year’s ISSAA legislation. NAFSA members in Minnesota offered important feedback to Sen. Coleman during recent "summits" offered earlier this month, which led to many improvements in the legislation. NAFSA staff has worked closely with the Senators' staff on the bill.

NAFSA members are asked to help seek co-sponsors for the legislation (for a sample letter to send to your Senator, go to NAFSA's "Take Action!" web page.)

Senator Coleman's office provided the following information on key changes from last year’s bill:

1. The bill has a new name – ACTION, which stands for American Competitiveness Through International Openness Now. The name conveys the sense that the time has come for the United States to take ACTION to reclaim our preeminent position as a destination for the world’s best and brightest.
2. On Friday, because of pressure exerted by Senator Coleman and the international education community, the State Department made the decision to extend the validity of Visas Mantis to four years. As a result of that decision, Senator Coleman has have removed that clause from the bill and is pleased to credit the Administration with taking this step in the right direction. Background checks for Visas Mantis are very time-consuming, and because these are the world’s top scientists, encouraging them to come to America will have a direct impact on American competitiveness in science and technology.
3. Senator Coleman has added a provision dealing with data glitches in the SEVIS system. Currently while Universities can enter student records into the SEVIS database, they are not able to fix any errors in the system. When they call in to the SEVIS administrators, customer service has been poor. This provision asks for mechanisms to be developed to enable universities – who are already trusted and tasked to do database entry work – to make some more of these minor changes themselves, so that students who have not broken the rules are not deported because of a database glitch. And after hearing recently about the amount of time school administrators spend entering and updating records in the SEVIS system, Senator Coleman added another provision that would require a second look at the regulations and technology involved in SEVIS, to reduce the time school administrators have to spend on it.
4. Senator Coleman added a provision that would improve student visas for both American students and international students. Currently, the length of a student’s visa and the student’s ability to visit family back home vary from country to country, depending on what agreement has been reached by the U.S. and the other government. In many instances, students can only get a visa for one year, and may only enter the country one time. This makes for tough choices if a student wants to return home for a wedding, funeral, to visit a sick parent, etc. The bill now asks the State Department to renegotiate with foreign countries so that visas for both Americans studying abroad and international students studying here are expanded to four years and permit students to leave and come back without having to reapply. Senator Coleman’s chief of staff will take this message to China next week.
5. After hearing about the difficult choices many students face if they are here on a single entry visa and have a family emergency, Senator Coleman added a clause to establish a presumption of approval for when they reapply. The hope is that students can go home for a funeral, wedding, or sick relative without the worry of starting their whole visa process over again.
6. After hearing from an intensive English instructor at the University of Minnesota, Senator Coleman decided to add a clause that would give consular officers discretion, on a country-by-country and case-by-case basis, to consider certain short-term English programs as recreational in nature, and therefore not needing the level of scrutiny as someone who is here for a longer period of time. Again, this would be on a case-by-cases basis, and be most likely to be applied in countries like Japan, where people can enter as visitors without visas, but have to jump through hoops if they happen to want to come and learn English.