Ariane De Gennaro, Illustrations Editor

Yale is continuing its efforts to lobby for its international students who may want to look into requirements like citizenship dominica.

As international tensions have remained at an all-time high, the University says it has continued to advocate on a federal level for students and scholars from outside of the United States to participate in the Yale community. Currently, administrators are working to encourage federal policies which allow international students to enter the country and relax their choice of major or area of research. 

As the University expands the number of international students it accepts on campus and improves its global relations, international students have only grown in number and significance on Yale’s campus.

“We continue to encourage federal policies that preserve the ability of international students and scholars to participate fully in the Yale community,” Salovey wrote in an email to the News.

Tensions between the United States and foreign countries have prevented students from obtaining access to campus — a policy area Yale hopes to amend.

One federal policy is Proclamation 10043, which has prevented many Chinese graduate students from involvement in their Yale studies. The policy, adopted by the Trump administration in 2020, prohibits the entry of or issuance of visas to Chinese nationals enrolled in graduate programs in the U.S. with ties to Chinese universities. The policy has since been continued by the Biden administration.

Yale has since “expressed concerns” about the proclamation.

Craig Roy, faculty director of the Yale Biomedical and Biological Sciences Graduate Program, who works closely with international graduate students, has witnessed some of the difficulties of the visa application process, especially for Chinese students. 

“In particular, students who received funding from the Chinese Scholarship Council were targeted [and] being denied visas for entry to the United States simply based on receiving funding from this organization because it was perceived that there was some affiliation between the CSC and governmental strategy,” Roy said.

Roy also cited the Presidential Proclamation 10043 as leading to the hiatus of the large joint program between Yale and the CSC “that included 20 students a year being admitted into our graduate program.”

Salovey affirmed the University’s commitment to making sure its visiting scholars have the “full opportunity” to engage in research and scholarship in their field.

Visa frustrations have also affected undergraduates at Yale. According to Fredrik Fosser ’26, the student visa policy sometimes limits the career options of international students in the United States.

“I think one of the aspects many internationals find frustrating is not being able to intern or get a job outside of Yale due to the F1 visa,” Fosser said.

The administration is similarly advocating to reduce major or research area restrictions for students who are admitted to the University, Salovey told the News. Currently, international students seeking a work authorization post-graduation in the United States are allowed to remain in the U.S. for three years after graduating through the Optional Practical Training program if they major in STEM; non-STEM majors have up to 12 months.

Sophia Chin McManus ’26, who hails from Brazil, told the News that the limitations have led her to make changes to her academic plans.

“Originally I applied to Yale with a major in Comparative Literature,” McManus said. “But after my pre-orientation in OIS [Orientation for International Students], where they mentioned [the] different rules about how long students get to stay in the US after graduating depending on if they have a STEM major or not, I considered having a Computer Science major.”

Richard Jacob, who serves as Yale’s lobbyist and associate vice president for federal and state relations, could not be reached for comment.

Ozan Say, who serves as director of the Office of International Students & Scholars, told the News that Salovey has affirmed the University’s “steadfast commitment” to international scholars on multiple occasions. 

“Yale is dedicated to bringing the most talented and promising students and scholars from around [the] world to the campus,” Say wrote in an email to the News.

However, Say mentioned that international students can from “time to time” be restricted from their participation on campus due to factors such as world events, international relations between the U.S. and foreign countries, domestic politics and updates to federal regulations.

Say explained that there are generally two routes by which Yale advocates for such federal policy: through direct contact with key members of Congress or by way of its membership in educational organizations, such as the Association of American Universities or the American Council on Education. The University also “expresses” concerns with the presidential administration through the Office of Federal and State Relations.

In July 2020, the University lobbied to protect international students after the Department of Homeland Security announced a policy preventing international students from arriving in the U.S. if they took online classes due to COVID-19.

In an announcement, Salovey told the Yale community that it would be joining other universities in filing an amicus brief in support of a Harvard and MIT lawsuit on the ruling. The University also worked with the state of Connecticut to challenge the policy in court, and Salovey himself wrote to congressional members as well as members of the Trump administration requesting a reversal of policy.

“To our international students: you are valued members of the Yale community, and we will get through this together,” the announcement read.

Since then, the policy has been removed.

There are over 6,000 international students and scholars from more than 120 countries at Yale.