With new visa regulations in place since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, all international students and scholars, and their dependents, must have their data entered into the Student & Exchange Visitor Information System by Aug. 1. This new electronic system, which includes students’ personal and educational information, allows the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services — previously the Immigration and Naturalization Service — to monitor students’ and visiting scholars’ movements in and out of the country.
To get an early start, the University’s Office of International Programs will have two sessions on Monday and Thursday to get current students into the system and issue them new paperwork. The sessions are from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the EMU Walnut Room on Monday and in the Gumwood Room on Thursday.
While August is still some time away, OIP Director Ginny Stark said the department wants students to get the new immigration documents by the end of spring term because some may be traveling over the summer. In addition, there are about 1,400 international students at the University, all of whom may require the new paperwork.
“Because of the volume and amount of work we have to do, we want to do it promptly,” Stark said.
International students on F-1 visas are required to get new SEVIS I-20 forms, while international visiting scholars with J-1 visas will be issued a new DS-2019 form (formerly called the IAP66).
According to OIP’s SEVIS Coordinator Peter Eberhardt, the new forms have a barcode with a unique number assigned to each student. Each time students seek American visas or enter or leave the country, the barcode will be scanned, bringing up the students’ information, including whether they have legal status.
Stark said the government felt compelled to introduce the new system for security reasons and because the old INS system had difficulties in keeping track of students.
“From a government perspective, it will be a uniform system of verifying legal status of students and scholars,” she said.
Stark and Eberhardt added SEVIS also will require information that the INS did not previously require. For instance, students and scholars will now have to give physical home addresses instead of just P.O. boxes, and J-1 visa dependents also may need to state their city of birth.
For the sessions, students are required to bring all previous I-20 or IAP66 documents, passports, I-94 cards, transcripts and verification of GTF appointments or scholarship awards for the next school year. Graduating students who will still be in the country after Aug. 1 also are required to attend the session.
“Our office is doing what we can,” said Eberhardt. “We can only do that with the cooperation of the students.” He said the sessions were mandatory.
Stark reiterated the importance of the sessions.
“Anybody who will be here who is not entered into SEVIS by August is out of legal status,” she said. “It is very difficult now to be reinstated to legal status by BCIS.”
Students who fail to attend will be restricted from registering for fall term.
Eberhardt said one of the challenges of the system was its newness, and it remains to be seen how effective it will be.
“Our work will directly affect the well-being and continued status of these 1,400 students,” he said. “We really want our work to be transparent.”
Junior Paul Manokore, a student from Zimbabwe, said he has heard SEVIS may make things easier for international students by reducing some of the problems they face in obtaining and renewing American visas.
“I can’t determine yet whether it’s a good thing or bad thing because it is still being implemented,” he said.