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US issued over 85,000 student visas in China since May
State Department data showed that 33,896 F1 student visas were issued to Chinese nationals in June, up from just 8 issued in the previous June and close to the 34,001 in June 2019. F1 visas are the most common US visa for full-time foreign students, and June is typically a busy month.
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Cyclists ride by Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus on March 12, 2019 in Stanford, California. More than 40 people, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, have been charged in a widespread elite college admission bribery scheme. Parents, ACT and SAT administrators and coaches at universities including Stanford, Georgetown, Yale, and the University of Southern California have been charged. (AFP/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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he United States has issued more than 85,000 student visas in China since May, its Beijing embassy said on Wednesday, after the Biden administration eased restrictions on applications earlier this year.
State Department data showed that 33,896 F1 student visas were issued to Chinese nationals in June, up from just 8 issued in the previous June and close to the 34,001 in June 2019. F1 visas are the most common US visa for full-time foreign students, and June is typically a busy month.
"The numbers show clearly that the United States stands ready to issue visas to all those who are qualified - including Chinese students and scholars," the embassy said in a statement.
In January 2020, then-President Donald Trump barred nearly all non-US citizens who were in China from entering the United States after the start of coronavirus outbreak.
And last September, the Trump administration revoked the visas of hundreds of Chinese students and researchers deemed security risks, amid tense relations with Beijing.
"In light of some abuses of the visa process, the United States implemented a narrowly targeted policy to protect US national security interests,” the US embassy said, which affected a "tiny percentage" of applicants.
The Biden administration’s April announcement of easing of restrictions on Chinese student visa applications gives a boost to US universities struggling financially during the pandemic.
The American Council on Education cited a study saying that the economic benefit generated by international students had declined by some $2 billion during the 2019-20 academic year to around $39 billion.
Around 372,000 Chinese citizens accounted for 35% of international students in the United States in the 2019-20 school year, according to the International Education Exchange (IEE), nearly twice as many as from India, the second-largest source.
In the school year starting in 2019, Chinese students brought an estimated economic benefit of $16 billion to the United States, the IEE report said.
