INS system's deadline pushed back

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has extended the deadline to input information into a database which tracks international students.

The previous deadline, Jan. 30, 2002, was extended 15 days in order to let schools and the INS work out computer compatibility problems and other glitches with the system.

"The reason why the two weeks grace period was added was to make sure that the systems at the colleges and universities are actually communicating with the system at the INS," said Department of Justice spokesman Jorge Martinez.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is supposed to interface information from over 3,000 schools approved to emit visas to their foreign students. SEVIS is designed to keep track of information on the academic, personal and financial status of alien students. Most importantly, it ensures that students are actually attending the institution that gave them their visa.

There are 1,272 foreign students and 451 foreign faculty members on Tufts' three Boston-area campuses. Most of these non-citizens are here on visas that will fall into the categories catalogued by SEVIS.

SEVIS, however, does not appear to be operating smoothly. "The system is very, very slow," said Jane Etish-Andrews, Tufts' liaison with the INS for undergraduates. "It can take hours to get a student's information in."

The University currently must enter information for every student by hand in real time. The cumbersome manual process will eventually be eliminated after the system is upgraded and more efficient "batch transmissions" are made possible. "Now we're holding back because we want to use the batch system," Etish-Andrews said

Another problem with SEVIS is that Tufts has been unable to create an actual visa document through the program.

Additionally, the system frequently kicks users offline. Tufts administrators have stopped attempting to use SEVIS until such problems are fixed, according to Etish-Andrews. "We're ready; if the systems would work we'd do it," she said.

Martinez said that "the INS has been working with looking at those problems," and will be searching for any way they can make the system function more smoothly.

The demand for an electronic tracking system came to the forefront after it was discovered that some of the Sept. 11 terrorists entered the country on student visas, but the issue initially emerged after the World Trade Center bombings in 1993. In 1996, Congress mandated the creation of SEVIS, with an implementation deadline of Jan. 30, 2003 _ a deadline that was abandoned in 2000. The USA Patriot Act, passed last year, reinstated the deadline and injected $36.8 million into the project.

The USA Patriot Act requires schools to supply information ranging from whether the student is taking a full course load or working as an off-campus employee to any disciplinary action he or she receives. The system includes all post-secondary schools, including universities and vocational schools.

In order to be approved for participation in SEVIS, institutions had to apply to the INS and pay a fee of $580, according to an INS news release. New foreign students will be barred from entering the country unless the INS has received prior notification from their institutions via SEVIS.

Non-compliance with the INS system would prohibit schools from issuing visas, seriously compromising their ability to admit international students.

Universities have until Aug. 1, 2003 to put in all foreign students, who received Visas prior to the reinstatement of the USA Patriot Act, into the database.

Tufts will be holding general information meetings about SEVIS later on in the semester and the International Center will put up a website with SEVIS information.