How difficult is it for international students to get a student visa? They may not be as hard to obtain as some believe, but there's plenty of uncertainty to the process, according to David Ware, a lawyer and author who specializes in immigration issues. As Ware notes, consuls who make the determination have about three minutes to decide each case.

Ware has practiced exclusively in the area of immigration and nationality law since 1982. He is a frequent speaker and teaches immigration law at Southern University School of Law. Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, he has conducted educational programs at Vanderbilt University's Owen School of Management and is a member of the U.S. Immigration Lawyers Assn. He completed his Juris Doctor at the University of Texas in 1981. Ware recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online reporter Jeffrey Gangemi about how international students can increase their chances of getting a U.S. visa. An edited transcript of their conversation follows:

Q: Is it as hard as everyone thinks for international students to obtain a student visa?
A: Yes and no. The perception that it is extremely hard is perhaps a little bit skeptical, but the perception that it is a crapshoot is completely justified. There's one factor -- assuming the person has adequate financing to study in the U.S. -- that the consul looks at to determine whether to grant the student visa: the ties to the home country and the likelihood that the person will return after finishing studies in the U.S.

This is codified into law in section 214B of the Immigration Nationality Act. This section states that applicants are presumed to be attempting to immigrate permanently to the U.S., unless they prove otherwise to the consul. Students must prove that they have a residence abroad that they have no intention of abandoning.

Q: How does the consul make that judgment?
A: Consuls have about three minutes to make a decision on each case. Usually, the consul doesn't go by specific evidence provided by the applicant, but rather the reading of the visa application and their gut feeling. They take into account the applicant's socioeconomic background; the conditions in the home country with regard to economy, social strife, and economic and social development; and the person's demographic profile.

Are they single or married? Are they leaving their family behind when they come to study in the U.S.? Does the degree they're getting make sense? These are a few of the different factors that they look at, and in three minutes or less, they coalesce all of these factors into a judgment: denial or grant.

Q: Who is most likely to be granted a visa?
A: People who are upper-middle class in their home country, and those who are coming to private schools in the U.S. are generally more likely to be granted a visa. Those who are attending a private school tend to be better off financially.

Also, people whose families are integrated into the community and economic structure back home are considered more likely to return -- and thus are more likely to get a visa. Perhaps dad or mom has a business in the home country, a factory or some sort of service business. It's perceived that those types of individuals are more likely to go home and form part of the elite in their home country, rather than try to stay in the U.S.

Q: Can a lawyer help overturn a student visa denial?
A: Lawyers are rarely helpful in arguing cases of denial of student visas. They are much more helpful, sometimes indispensable, in helping arrange a work visa. Basically, a consul's decision [on a visa application] is the word of God. It's not directly reviewable in a U.S. court.

Q: Are there quotas from each country?
A: Even if a country is in pretty bad shape, that doesn't mean it's impossible for its citizens to get student visas. Although the approval of applications is supposed to be based on the applicant's likelihood of going home, there's a certain amount of grin and wink to all this. For example, the return rate in the 1990s for Chinese who came to study in America was about 10% or less. They rarely returned to their home country.

Consuls had this data, but for political reasons, they would never deny visas to 90% of Chinese applicants. It would damage diplomatic relations with China and damage the economic health of U.S. institutions to do so.

Q: What kinds of changes have there been since September 11?
A: Contrary to popular belief, the main change since September 11 has not been in the visa denial rate, which has fluctuated very little since then. The main changes have been in the security checks that are required to get or renew the visa.

Before September 11, the State Dept. would send an applicant's information to the FBI or CIA for a background check, and if they got no response after a certain amount of time, they would go ahead and issue the visa. Now, the consul must get a positive response from the agency to be able to issue the visa. This has caused much longer wait times for students.

Q: What kinds of background checks are in place?
A: There are two -- the Mantis and Condor. People whose occupation comes under the "Technology Alert List" are susceptible to the Mantis background check. The Technology Alert List comprises fields that could be used against the U.S. in some act of terrorism, or that could be transferred to rogue nations. It includes fields as obviously dangerous as nuclear reaction, but also less obvious ones like urban planning.

The Mantis is for people from specific nationalities more than others, and it's up to the consulate's discretion whether to order one of these. In other words, a student from Pakistan is much more likely to be subjected to a security check than a student from Sweden, for example -- even if they are in the same industry.

The other background check added since September 11 is the so-called "list of 27" security check, known as Condor. It is performed on males between the ages of 17 and 60 from certain countries (including those born in or citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, possibly Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen).

The State Dept. attempted to keep the list secret, but it was leaked to The New York Times. Condor is a background check designed to make sure that the person doesn't have any links to terrorist organizations.

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