Is SEVIS Likely to Cause Problems For Foreign Students?

Unne asks: "I just received notice from the foreign student department of my school (City College of New York) advising me to not leave the country anytime soon, or, if traveling is absolutely necessary, to return before the end of the year. It appears that a new system is being deployed called SEVIS, the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System, which requires 43 separate pieces about me if I am to be verified thru this system. I did a Slashdot-search for SEVIS but came up with nothing. I'd love to hear some opinions from people who are familiar with the program or perhaps took part in its development. What are those 43 items of information. What type of computer systems do they use? Is the information exchange between INS and the schools really handled via the web, and how does that affect privacy and personal integrity?"

"Here is what the notice says:

TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS - WINTER 2002

The Immigration Service is implementing a new record-keeping system for international students in the United States called SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System). The implementation of the SEVIS program is likely to cause extreme difficulties for students who wish to travel and re-enter the United States for the foreseeable future. This is how the SEVIS system is supposed to work and some of the complications that we anticipate may arise:

• By November 15th, 2002 all schools in the US authorized to admit international students must apply for re-certification in order to continue to be eligible to admit international students.
• It is uncertain how long it will take INS to re-certify schools applying for re-certification.
• When a school becomes re-certified, all I-20's must be issued under the new SEVIS system. That means the school must transmit, electronically, forty-three (43) items of information about the student to the INS' SEVIS website.
• When that information is received by INS, it will be reviewed and Immigration will electronically send an approval notice to the school to allow the school to allow the school to download a SEVIS I-20 for the student. It is uncertain how long the approval process will take - it could be hours, days or weeks.
• The school will download the new SEVIS I-20 and give it to the student.

POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS

• In many cases, the International Student Office may have incomplete data on the students requesting I-20's. That means we must obtain the missing data before proceeding with the process.
• Within the near future, thousands of schools in the US will be submitting information on tens of thousands of students requesting I-20's to the SEVIS website. This system has been tested in only a very limited fashion. No-one can predict how well it will work in reality.
• The new system comes into effect on January 30th, 2003. However, if a school is re-certified before that date it is not clear whether existing I-20 forms will be honored or whether the student must use a SEVIS I-20 to enter the country even if entering the US before January 30th, 2003.
• After re-certification, students transferring to a SEVIS-approved school will be unable to receive an I-20 from their new school until their previous school certifies that the student is maintaining lawful student status and is eligible for school transfer.
• The best advice we can offer at the moment is: If it is not absolutely vital that you travel, it will be safer and much less complicated if you avoid leaving the country at this time. If you must travel, it will be better if you can return before the end of this year."

Comments

Why search on Slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Google is full of information. It's brand new, so I doubt many people have experience with it.

The SEVIS Project

[graphicartist82]

I'm a programmer working for a (relatively) small university. We are busting our asses trying to get our systems compliant with SEVIS by the deadline of Jan. 30, 2003 or we lose the ability to have international students at our school.

The 43 pieces of information range from the usual stuff (last name, first name, middle, birth date, etc) to rather personal stuff like: personal funds (how much money you have in the bank), living costs, dependent costs, how much money you make at your job, driver's license number, etc etc..

The question is: "Is SEVIS likely to Cause Problems For Foreign Students?" Here's your answer: YES: SEVIS will cause you problems! Basically, the word from the INS is that reinstatement is not an option. So, if you are an international student, and for any reason you go out of staus, you're screwed..

As far as the computer systems the INS uses to house this information: nobody knows. We submit the information to the INS via a HTTPS post and the data is in XML format.. (I do know that the web server we submit data to is running IIS...)

Recently, I attended a conference and there was a presentation on SEVIS. The presenter said "If I was an international student, I wouldn't want to go to school in the US. I'd go somewhere else..."!!!

I am very much against this project. I don't think it will solve anything. It's just another knee-jerk reaction from scared government officials wanting another X amount of years in Washington for being a part of <sarcasm> a system that will end all terrorism by tracking every piece of information about students.. Yeah, that will stop terrorism! </sarcasm>

We (read: all ~7000 universities that are REQUIRED to participate) were all hoping at the beginning that this would be some fad and it would just go away once the INS discovered that it is not practical.. But that hasn't happened yet, and we are less than 2 months away from the "do or die" compliance date... This is very much a reality folks.

Re:The SEVIS Project

[graphicartist82]

Sorry for replying to myself, but I forgot 1 very important piece of information the article poster should know..

Your school has most likely already re-submitted their I-17 (basically the form that makes a school able to have international students). After that, a contracted individual (read: private investigator who knows nothing about the workings of the INS) will come to your school and do a site-survey (basically check to see if documents can be produced on demand). Then that individual will submit a report to the INS. After the INS reviews the report and approves the I-17, your university can no longer submit I-20's in any other way than via the SEVIS system!!

So if you don't like this information, you have until your school gets approved to find a school in another country... because everywhere in the US has to do things the exact same way...

Re:I have another suggestion...

[zulux]

Interesting aside, apparently the curent crop of people we consider "Native Americans" are actually the third wave of people on the shores of this continente. You can guess where the previous two groups wound up.

Aside to an Aside, I work for a company of "Indians" and never, once, have they refered of them selves at "Native Americans". "Natives" once and a while, but almost alsway "Indian."

It's only the sickly pussy-whipped white males driving beat up Volvos and listening to Chomsky's books on 8-Track, who smoke too much of the good herb that use the term "Native American."