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The US House of Representatives is most likely to accept a bill that will exempt International STEM Graduates with Employment Visa issues. They might have to pay additional fees to arrange funds for the low-income STEM students from the US.
This bill is expected to be voted on this week. If it gets passed, the America COMPETES Acts of 2022 would have a certain number of provisional acts addressed for the International Education Sector.
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One of the provisions included extending limits on the international students to get green cards or funding alternatives to Confucius Institutes at US Universities along with a new visa category for the entrepreneurs. Supplementary fees are most likely to increase the overall cost by USD 1000.
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The bill will also address the issue of authenticity so that any foreign national will not be able to use this scope as an excuse to retreat within the country with malicious intention. In this regard, all the research and development award-guarantees in the US, may have to opt for disclosure of contracts or foreign grants of USD 100,000 or more (USD 250,000) annually to the US Government for three consecutive years.
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Jill Allen Murray, NAFSA Deputy Executive Director of Public Policy, welcomed these changes with a positive outlook and explained how these can be proved beneficial for the international students. Moreover, stating how the Build Black Better Bill was stalled, she commented that this bill can aid in the much required reformation in the US Immigration system.
She also added that this bill has to comply with the US Innovation and Competition Act passed by the Senate last year to work well. On the other hand, since none of these two bills have provisions for the extension of the dual intent for the F-1 International Students, an important policy to retain and recruit international students, they lack to a certain extent.
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Miriam Feldblum, Executive Director, however, stated that the act is a win-win option for all international students, educational institutes, local economies and the nation. She agreed, however, that the green card option should have been extended to the non-STEM students as well. This is particularly because they also contribute to the economy of the country.
She also proposes that the policy should include students pursuing Masters, PhDs, Bachelors and the range of fields should have been versatile as well. This way, many researchers would have been interested in studying in the USA.
Contrarily, the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration welcomed the policy as welcoming for the international students, minimising and deterring the threats posed by the former President Trump’s period in Presidential Office.
Check: Controversial H-1B Rule Change Scrapped by US Department of Homeland Security
Brain Whalen, Recruitment Council, suggested that the policies should have been more welcoming towards the International Students and adjusted as per their requirements. His suggestion comes from the intent to recruit more US-trained students and enable them to contribute to the US economy. This attempt to include students from the Innovation and STEM field seems to be an extension of the goal to sustain the US economy more. The provided funding is supposed to further provide the community colleges to enhance their performance.
Whalen criticised the policy stating that it hasn’t considered the entry points of the international students. Some of the entry points are K-12 schools, high schools, graduate and undergraduate institutions, vocational and business training, English language programmes, short-term study abroad programmes and so on.
The Bidden-Harris administration seems to be focused on the growth of the US economy, more job creation, strengthening of national security and overall prosperity of the country and adjusting or creating new policies more suitable for the international students.
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