From AP via USA Today (link):
Biologist Zhu Heng lived the ordeal that Chinese students dreaded because of U.S. visa restrictions imposed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Zhu was on a fellowship at Yale University when he returned to Beijing for a visit in 2002. He waited in China for a year – away from his fiancee, his fellowship and his lab – while the U.S. government did a background check ordered for visiting researchers in sensitive science fields. Zhu lost the fellowship, the fiancee, his credit rating, car and apartment. “It screwed up my life totally,” he told a Yale medical journal in 2003.
Procedures have been simplified and waiting times slashed. Visa approvals are up and American campuses are again growing in popularity among Chinese.
See also “Fewer Chinese Students Seek to Study in U.S.” by Theresa Bradley published by China Daily