INS launches new system for tracking foreign students

Eligible schools will soon be able to use the Immigration and Naturalization Service's new automated system for tracking foreign students living in the United States, under a rule published in the Federal Register this week.

The rule allows certain accredited private and public schools that enroll foreign students to begin using the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) over the next month. Schools that begin using SEVIS between now and Aug. 16, when the early enrollment period for the system ends and the new certification process for schools kicks in, will not have to pay a certification fee.

SEVIS, which the INS plans to fully implement by Jan. 30, 2003, will replace the agency's current paper-based system for tracking foreign students in the United States. It is designed to eliminate delays in notification by informing all parties simultaneously once an INS decision on a visa application is completed.

SEVIS requires the INS and schools to process all change-of-status applications for foreign students within 30 days. The 30-day limit was supposed to take effect in October, but a new contract and a substantial backlog of applications delayed the move.

Schools must submit their applications to participate in the preliminary SEVIS enrollment program to INS for review. They will receive a user identification and password to use the SEVIS system about two weeks after they submit their applications, said Chris Bentley, an agency spokesman.

Bentley said the purpose of the rule is to help eligible schools begin using SEVIS immediately and allow INS to get the certification process for schools under way. All schools that enroll foreign students must be reviewed and recertified by the agency by the end of January 2003. "This is the first step in that certification process," Bentley said.

To qualify for the early enrollment period to use SEVIS, postsecondary, vocational and language schools must be accredited by organizations recognized by the Education Department. Private elementary and private secondary schools must have accreditation from an organization holding membership in the Council for American Private Education or the American Association of Christian Schools. Public high schools must show that they meet the requirements of the state or local public educational system in which they are located. All eligible schools must have been approved by the INS for the last three years to enroll foreign students.

In May, the Justice Department's inspector general released a report that questioned whether the INS would be able to fully implement SEVIS by the January 2003 deadline. The report also said SEVIS alone will not solve all the problems associated with tracking foreign students.

"The INS must review and properly recertify the thousands of schools that are currently certified to enroll foreign students, must ensure that its employees and schools timely and accurately enter information into SEVIS, and must ensure that the information from SEVIS is analyzed and used adequately," the report said.

The INS believes it will have "no problems whatsoever" meeting the implementation deadline, Bentley said.

President Bush called for the inspector general's investigation in March after an INS contractor sent letters to a Venice, Fla., flight school six months after Sept. 11 confirming the agency's approval of student visas for terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi. The INS approved the visas before the Sept. 11 attacks, but at the time, schools usually received confirmation letters later, after an agency contractor had entered the data manually into a computer system.