January 23, 2003

Program to track non-immigrant students will link with INS

The International Office is completing plans to implement new federal reporting requirements on nonimmigrant international students and visiting scholars.

The new Internet-based system — called Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVIS) — collects and reports accurate and current information on non-immigrant students (F-1 and M-1 visa) and ex-change visitors (J-1 visa) and their dependents.

SEVIS will link educational institutions authorized to admit and enroll foreign students, U.S. embassies and consulates, U.S. ports of entry, Department of State and exchange visitor program. SEVIS was created last year when Congress passed the USA Patriot Act and the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act.

The goal of SEVIS is to allow the INS to better monitor the status of international students and scholars.

Northwestern currently is host to 1,800 students from 100 countries and 600 visiting scholars.

Under SEVIS the Inter-national Office will confirm the enrollment of students within 30 days of the beginning of each term. It will report “event changes” within 21 days — such as a change from full-time to part-time, termination, graduation, transfer, address change, or criminal disciplinary action, off-campus employment recommendation, change of level and program, withdrawal for medical or other reasons. Reduced course load and withdrawal from program must be authorized by a designated school official in the International Office and entered in the SEVIS before such an action can be taken by the student. Under the new regulations students who fail to maintain full-time status (and reportable events) without prior approval from the International Office have very little remedy. They will have to depart the United States and re-enter with new documents.

Universities must have their systems operational by Jan. 31 and be certified as a SEVIS school by the INS. The Univer-sity successfully completed all the requirements and is now a SEVIS certified school operating under the new regulations.

The University has completed the technical foundation to implement the system with a dedicated server for the student database, enabling the Inter-national Office to access current information. Software to operate the system is now being tested.

The International Office has informed students and scholars of the new program and has held information sessions that will continue in the winter quarter, said Ravi Shankar, director of the International Office. To schedule a SEVIS presentation, contact Shankar by email at r-shankar@northwestern.edu.

The SEVIS system builds on a pilot program, the Coordinat-ed Interagency Partnership Regulating International Students, which tested concepts associated with the new data collection and reporting methods.