UD early to comply with SEVIS

New federal tracking system for foreign exchange students

As of Feb. 15, all U.S. colleges and universities that want to bring international students and scholars to this country must be certified by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as participating in its web-based Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). SEVIS is the federally mandated tracking program designed to monitor foreign nationals who hold visas from educational institutions.

Certification is based on whether or not the educational institution has begun processing all visa applications through SEVIS. Schools also are required to comply with stricter homeland-security-oriented regulations for tracking foreign nationals.

Conrado M. Gempesaw, vice provost for academic programs and planning, whose office oversees foreign student and scholar services, said the University was early to come into compliance.

"UD is one of the few institutions that implemented SEVIS before it was made a requirement. We believe that our proactive approach has minimized whatever negative impacts the program may have on foreign students. There have always been regulations with regard to enrollment and the academic progress of international students. These regulations are not new. What is new is that the reporting system to INS is now more formalized," he said.

Under the Patriot Act, passed in the wake of 9/11, educational institutions must know, at all times, the whereabouts of persons to whom they have issued I-20 or IAP-66 visas and must inform the INS, within a specific period of time, of any changes in the status of the international students, scholars and those accompanying them on similar visas.

Mary Martin, assistant provost of graduate studies, said the INS requires special registration for males of certain ethnic origins who apply for an educational institution visa from any of 22 countries. These men must check in at local INS offices between Feb. 24 and March 28 and then reregister each year they are in the U.S.

CIPRIS, the original tracking system, was created after the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, but it wasn't funded. Then, after 9/11, Congress revised CIPRIS to become SEVIS and appropriated federal funds, Martin said.

Under the new Patriot Act regulations, schools have 21 days to report foreign nationals who

The University also will be required to issue individual visas to those who accompany students and scholars to this country and to track their locations.

By September, all foreign national students and scholars, not just new ones, will have to be in the SEVIS database, Martin said. All schools that issue I-20s--more than 70,000 of them--are to be audited by INS this year.

Susan Lee, foreign student and scholar adviser, said she doesn't think the new INS regulations will discourage international students from coming to UD. She said 62 percent of the graduate students who apply are foreign nationals and 10 percent of those are offered admission. Last year, post 9/11, 390 foreign nationals applied, a 9 percent increase over 2001.

However, Scott Stevens, director of the English Language Institute, said he saw a 25 percent drop in enrollment of foreign students after 9/11, and enrollment has yet to recover. Business professionals coming to UD haven't been affected by the new regulations, he said, because they don't use academic visas.

Stevens doesn't blame the drop in enrollments on SEVIS or the fallout from 9/11 as much as some of the world's perception that "the U.S. is drawing up the bridge, that international students aren't wanted."

Gempesaw said he doesn't think these new reporting regulations will affect UD foreign students and scholars. Most of the 9/11 terrorists were in this country on expired tourist visas, not student visas, he said.

"If we can make the U.S. and the world safer by improving the sharing of important information and, as long as we do not violate the privacy rights of all students, then, these policies will be beneficial," Gempesaw said.

BARBARA GARRISON