Some foreign scholars will be issued visas that will be good for five years instead of three, thanks to new State Department regulations, announced in today’s Federal Register, that are scheduled to go into effect on Saturday. The extension would permit professors and scholars who hold J visas, under the department’s Exchange Visitor Program, to enter and leave the United States an unlimited number of times over a five-year period. Once their visas expired, however, participants in the program would have to wait two years before they could apply for another five-year visa.

The extension does not go as far as some college officials had hoped. Among other things, it would bar participation by scholars who have held another nonimmigrant visa within the previous year. The extension was decided almost 18 months ago, but the policy shift was delayed to allow the Department of Homeland Security to make necessary modifications to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.