As spring break approaches, many students intend to head home. For most, home may be down the street or a few hours’ drive away, but for a smaller percentage, home is overseas. For many international students traveling home for the break, travel blocks, obtaining the correct documents and scheduling conflicts are major issues
Elizabeth James, director of the Office of International Services, said that because of the length of spring break, a large portion of international students choose to remain on campus.
“A lot of our students don’t travel internationally during spring break. Spring break is a really short period of time to spend the amount of money that it takes to fly home,” James said. “Our two largest populations [at NC State] are India and China. So it takes almost 24 to 48 hours just to fly there. That’s two days, then coming back, that’s two days, that ticket is probably going to be about $2,000. Spring break is not a very common time for our students to travel home.”
There are approximately 4,800 international students at NC State. James said a majority of these students are graduate students who cannot travel home because of priorities like work and labs.
“I think it’s important to know that the majority of international students at NC State are graduate students,” James said. “They might use that time to catch up on their research or to work on papers, and they may have active experiments going where they can’t leave. So I don’t know that our [international] graduate students are traveling as much.”
Lisa Xu, a first-year doctoral student in the counselor education program and an international student from China, said work was not as much of a challenge for her as the cost is.
“For round-trip tickets, it’s usually around $1,500, which is very expensive compared to other living costs, and also Raleigh is quite far away from my hometown, so including waiting time and transfers, it usually takes me 38 hours back home,” Xu said.
Madison Nguyen, a first-year studying biochemistry and an international student from Vietnam, said cost and extensive paperwork are her main concerns when deciding whether or not to travel for breaks.
“[I get travel anxiety] especially about the financial things and the travel documents, because when you leave the U.S., you also have to get approval from the schools, from the U.S., so when you go back to that country, you can apply for your new visa,” Nguyen said. “Financially, it’s expensive. It’s costly. The documents, as well as the jet lag, I would say, are really bad, and I don’t know about others, but I don’t sleep well on planes… So sometimes I might stay awake for 24 hours straight without realizing it.”
James said, for students who do choose to travel home, travel anxiety is inevitable in today’s world due to complex customs requirements.
“In terms of international travel challenges, in terms of immigration policy, anytime you have to cross a port of entry, you’re going to be inspected at the port of entry. Now, for the vast majority of our students, where they are in valid status, and they have a valid visa, travel is something to be aware of and to prepare for, but not necessarily something that they need to avoid,” James said. “But there are certain restrictions in place right now for certain nationalities, where if they don’t have a valid visa, it may make it impossible for them to travel internationally.”
Students must book plane tickets months in advance and have all documents in order when planning to travel. Xu said she speaks with her advisor before traveling to help reduce the stress that booking tickets and planning flights brings.
“I talk about my visa status with my advisor three months ahead of time. And it’s really increased my pressure on [traveling],” Xu said. “I also need to look for a time for tickets three and a half months [in advance], because we might get trip tickets ahead of time, and pay the money for someone who can take care of my pets.”
Nguyen said making a list of documents and important items and talking to her family helps her manage the travel-related stress.
“Before I travel, I will always talk to my mom about it, make a checklist of things I should bring, especially the documents,” Nguyen said. “Documents might be the biggest problem that most international students struggle with. I have to prepare documents, passports, IDs, I-20 [forms]. I have to get all of them packed in a package and leave it in my carry-on luggage.”
The Office of International Services offers a multitude of resources for international students traveling, such as pre-flight checklists, scam information and alerts, visa programs and more.
James said even with these resources, some students choose not to travel at all due to the fear of being stopped or experiencing issues regarding their immigration or travel status.
“You kind of get a confirmation bias based on your anxiety level … You don’t realize that there are 100,000 people who entered without incident. You’re only focused on that one article because it was in the headlines,” James said. “I’m not saying that travel is super easy, but for a lot of students, they are evaluating their own personal risk based on their history, their factors, and what country they’re from. Once they’ve evaluated that and think that they’re good to travel, we haven’t really experienced a lot of issues with people re-entering.”
Xu said the fear of not getting their visa renewed in time is a factor that keeps many international students from traveling home over breaks.
“Before COVID, [traveling] was really challenging, because we had to have a signature from the international advisor office, and then after COVID, things were easier because we got an e-signature from the office. But I think lots of STEM students, someone who has sensitive majors, they only have a one-year visa, which means that if they go back to their home, they might have to spend some time to renew the visa, and I believe it lasts like two months,” Xu said.
Summer break is also an issue for students with temporary visas due to its length, Xu added.
“Our summer break is just about three months, and it’s increased their concern about renewing their visa. So most of those students just stay in the United States, and it’s kind of prevented them from visiting their families,” Xu said.
James said, while international students who are anxious about traveling may be tempted not to travel at all, they should be aware of the resources and support available to them.
“I think that students sometimes manage their anxiety by deciding whether they want to risk travel. If that’s not something that, based on their own risk profile, they’re not willing to chance, then they just don’t. Or if they’re in a restricted position where they’re not going to be able to get their renewed visa, they just don’t travel,” James said. “It’s difficult not to be able to see family and friends. Providing an additional reminder of resources on campus to manage feelings that accompany that is another part of what we do in our office.”
