"I think there are still quite a number of people who want to study in the
United States," said David Chen, a 24-year-old television reporter in Shanghai.
"But I believe it is not as popular as it used to be because there are now a lot
more choices, like European countries."
Also, Chen said, returnees can have a hard time in the Chinese job market
because there is the impression that they are out of touch with what's happening
in China now.
Fang Jingyi, 23, disagrees. He completed a one-year program at Pittsburg
State University in Kansas last year. Now he's in Beijing working for a company
that helps U.S.-bound students file visa applications.
Last summer, the United States extended student visa terms from six months
with two entries to one year with multiple entries.
Since then, "it's (been) getting better," Fang said.
"Now more and more students are interested in going to the United States," he
said. "The American education is the best in the world and after they come back
they can find a good job and their English will be very good."
The changes were a key factor behind a 21 percent jump in the number of
Chinese students applying to U.S. graduate schools in 2005, according to a March
report by the U.S. Council of Graduate Schools. It said that was the first
increase in three years.
Background checks, though inconvenient for many, are quicker.
"The fear of getting 'stuck' has lessened," Ann Kuhlman, director of the
Office of International Students and Scholars at Yale University, wrote in an
e-mail.
"Delays are not nearly as lengthy and unpredictable as they were a couple of
years ago," she wrote.
There is some grumbling about fingerprinting — a requirement for every
Chinese visa application since 2004. China initially called the measure
discriminatory. But the U.S. Embassy in Beijing says it helps prevent passport
fraud and notes the requirement is not unique to China.