Biden Encouraged Chinese Students Stay in the US

Chinese students who were standing in snake lines in the US Embassy in Beijing waiting for visa interview were surprised by an upbeat Biden and his inspiring impromptus speech, in which the Vice President of the United States urged Chinese students to stay in the US.

Obvious in a good spirit, Biden thanked the applicants for their effort for the US opportunities. He told students that he hope they would decided to stay once they arrived in the US. He also promised to arrange a reunion in Washington.

What's ironic is that for students seeking an F-1 student visa to study in the US university, the predominant condition and the No. 1 reason for visa rejection is that they must demonstrate they would not stay in the US. By law, if a student shows any sign of likelihood of not returning to China once his study completes, the visa officer must deny the visa application. It would be interesting if any of the students actually told the visa officer that he would follow Biden's advice.

In addition, the Beijing Embassy did not handle visa. All immigration visa applicants must apply in Guangzhou.

More Chinese Students Came to the US Last Year

113.8 thousands F-1 visas were issued to (mainland) Chinese students in FY2010, a significant growth from 81.8 thousands of FY2009 and 56.3 thousands of FY2008. In addition, 27.7 thousands J-1 visas and 1.4 thousands M-1 visas were issued. F-1 visa is issued to full-time students; J-1 is issued to exchange students and scholars; M-1 is for short term visiting students.

Among Chinese students in the US, about 31% are undergraduate students and about 52% are graduate students. Chinese students is the largest group among foreign students in the US.

19 million students were enrolled in colleges in the US at the time, including part time students. Booming Chinese economy, housing price in particular, has made US education very affordable for many Chinese families. For example, a typical apartment in Beijing worth about $1 million, and most city residents had acquired their resident 10 years ago while they were dirty cheap. Many had multiple houses as investment. It is expected that 300 million more farmers will rush to cities in next few years, thus continuously pushing the housing market to new high.

Indians: Fastest Growing Illegal Immigrants

Although 7 million Mexicans made up the majority of illegal immigrants in the US, Indians has more potential to take up the top illegal immigrants spot if the trend continues. There were about 120,000 illegal Indian immigrants in the US in 2000, while the number has grown to 270,000 in 2006 which converts to an increase of 125%.