Monday, February 14, 2005
The New York Times > Washington > State Dept. Relaxes Visa Rules for Some Scientists and Students
The New York Times > Washington > State Dept. Relaxes Visa Rules for Some Scientists and Students
The NY Times reports this morning that the Visas Mantis clearance process is being relaxed a bit by allowing clearances to last as long as four years for students and two years for working scientists. The Visas Mantis process calls for State Department review of visa applications where the applicant appears to be doing advanced research or business activity in an area involving "sensitive technology". The process is meant to keep critical technologies that could harm the U.S. from falling into the wrong hands. The fields of sensitive technology that Visas Mantis covers are set forth in the Technology Alert List and are pretty broadly defined (last time I looked Urban Planning was one of the area covered.) It particularly affects high tech companies in the area of Advanced Computer and Microelectronic Technology. The hope is that this will cut down on the volume of clearance requests forwarded to the State Department and make the clearance process relatively faster. These security clearance requests are particularly frequent at U.S. consulates in China, India, Israel, Pakistan and Russia.
The NY Times reports this morning that the Visas Mantis clearance process is being relaxed a bit by allowing clearances to last as long as four years for students and two years for working scientists. The Visas Mantis process calls for State Department review of visa applications where the applicant appears to be doing advanced research or business activity in an area involving "sensitive technology". The process is meant to keep critical technologies that could harm the U.S. from falling into the wrong hands. The fields of sensitive technology that Visas Mantis covers are set forth in the Technology Alert List and are pretty broadly defined (last time I looked Urban Planning was one of the area covered.) It particularly affects high tech companies in the area of Advanced Computer and Microelectronic Technology. The hope is that this will cut down on the volume of clearance requests forwarded to the State Department and make the clearance process relatively faster. These security clearance requests are particularly frequent at U.S. consulates in China, India, Israel, Pakistan and Russia.
