Washington

Immigration rules will wreak havoc at US universities when the academic year begins this autumn, administrators are predicting.

The leaders of four groups representing most US university and college administrators — including the Association of American Universities (AAU), which speaks for 50 top research schools — outlined their concerns in a letter to US secretary of state Colin Powell on 17 June.

They warned that visa delays could keep many foreign students and academic staff out of the country, causing “classes to be cancelled, and educational and research opportunities to be lost”.

The administrators are particularly worried about an instruction issued by the state department on 21 May, which they fear will dramatically increase the number of visa applicants who must undergo a face-to-face interview with consular officials.

At present, about 40% of all visa applicants are called in for interview, according to Barry Toiv, a spokesman for the AAU. But under the new instruction, embassies and consulates must interview virtually every applicant aged between 16 and 60 — without any increase in resources. “It will slow down a process that is already very cumbersome,” Toiv says.

The instruction will pile more pressure on a system already under great strain, university officials say. Many students and researchers have had their visits to the United States delayed by weeks or months by an interagency review process set up to screen for terrorists (see Nature 422, 457–458; 2003).

In addition, a computer database at the Department of Homeland Security, which will track foreign students and visiting scholars, is expected to start working in time for the new academic year, creating more headaches for the universities.

Debra Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools and one of the letter's signatories, predicts that some students and staff will head for other countries such as Britain, France and Australia, in the face of lengthening delays.

State department spokeswoman Brooke Summers says that the agency is working to alleviate the delays. “We're increasing our staff and doing all that we can,” she says, adding that the current environment requires extra security in the visa-screening process.