The US administration has said that the suspension on interviews for student visa applications is temporary and the spots might open “sooner than later” and hence the students must keep on checking the site. “So if you’ve applied for a visa, and you want to, please do. Then if there’s no – if you’re not getting an appointment, just – there’s an online system. You continually recheck to see when those spots might open,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. The department has suspended all visa interviews to widen social media vetting of foreign students looking to study in America. The decision came amid government’s crackdown on international students — arrest of foreign students, the administration seeking the records of foreign students from universities etc. After this announcement, the State Department said it will aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. “I can’t tell you immediately after some undetermined moment of an action, but I can tell you that it’s something that would happen perhaps sooner than later,” Bruce said on when the interview slots would open.“It’s not a birthright. It’s not something that you’re owed, no matter where you come from. Every prospective traveller to the United States undergoes interagency security vetting,” Bruce said echoing what Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said. “And this is important with these conversations because it seems like only certain groups are facing vetting with visas. Every single person does. So I would say that, yes, you’re going to get more information. And this is, as a result, not an interminable kind of end – there is an endpoint, and it should be rather quick, as consulates and embassies make adjustments when it comes to how they handle visas,” she said.
