http://chronicle.com/weekly/v50/i11/11a02801.htm
By MICHAEL ARNONE
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released draft regulations last week
that would require international students to pay a one-time $100 fee to cover
the costs of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or Sevis, the
database that the department uses to track them. The fee is expected to raise
more than $30-million.
The announcement marked the government's latest attempt to set a firm date for
collecting a Sevis fee. Under current rules, colleges had been expecting to be
required to collect the fee on March 1, 2003, but the deadline passed without
regulations in place.
Because so much time has elapsed since the last public discussion of the fee, it
is hard to say how international students would react to it, says David B. Clubb,
director of the Office of International Services at the main campus of the
University of Pittsburgh. He says that he expects many students would be
surprised and upset to hear that they have to pay an additional fee.
The charge is necessary because the law that created Sevis promised that fees,
not federal appropriations, would pay for its operating costs. The $100 fee is
the maximum that Congress permitted, says Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the
department.
Supporting Enforcement
The fee would raise money for system maintenance and pay for 61 Sevis liaison
officers to work with colleges. It would also pay for 182 officers in the U.S.
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the department's investigative
arm, who would make sure that international students arrive on college campuses
as promised, do not drop out, and meet the conditions of their student visas.
Students and exchange visitors would need to pay only when first classified as
either F- (full-time academic student), M- (vocational student), or J- (exchange
visitor) visa holders or if they change their visa status. Foreign visitors who
violate the conditions of their visa status would also be required to pay the
fee as part of the reinstatement process. Students would not need to pay the fee
again if they transferred between colleges or programs.
There are a number of exceptions to the new rule. Dependents and J-visa holders
on exchange programs sponsored by the federal government would not have to pay
the fee. International students also would not have to pay the Sevis fee again
if they were rejected for their visa and reapplied for the same kind of visa
within nine months of denial.
Foreign students would have to pay the fee before they applied for or renewed
their visas, but would have a variety of payment options. They could pay using a
credit card over the Internet or by check or money order in U.S. dollars drawn
from an American bank. Students would have to turn in a receipt when they
applied for their visas.
Too High?
College officials have worried that a high fee might bar international students
from poor countries. The students already have to pay a $100 visa-processing fee
to the Department of State and a visa-issuance fee determined by their country
of origin.
The former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Servicewhich oversaw Sevis and
was folded into the Homeland Security Department in Marchhired KPMG Consulting
in August 2002 to evaluate whether the $95 fee it wanted to impose would cover
the program's costs. KPMG found that the charge would be more than enough,
considering that the USA Patriot Act provided $36.8-million to pay for Sevis, an
amount not factored into the original calculations.
At the time, the consultants suggested a $54 fee for foreign students,
professors, and visiting scholars. A $35 fee was recommended for exchange
visitors working as au pairs, camp counselors, and participants in summer
work-travel programs. The draft regulations include the $35 fee for those
visitors.
College officials say they are mystified and frustrated over the Homeland
Security Department's decision to push for a students' fee at almost twice the
recommended level. "Why do these fee studies if you're going to throw them in
the wastebasket?" complains Victor C. Johnson, associate executive director of
Nafsa: Association of International Educators.
Mr. Strassberger, the department spokesman, says that the KPMG study did not
account for all of the activities that the Sevis fee would have to support.
The draft rules also discriminate against foreign students from countries where
access to credit cards and reliable mail systems is limited, Mr. Johnson says.
Colleges and the public have until December 26 to suggest changes. After that,
the department will weigh the comments. Mr. Strassberger says that the
government hopes to have the final regulations in place by the spring of 2004
or, at the latest, by next fall.
College officials hope the fee will not take effect until next fall, says Mr.
Clubb of Pittsburgh. That would avoid the confusing and unfair situation, he
says, of some students applying before the deadline and avoiding the fee.
Unknown Mechanics
Mr. Strassberger says the Homeland Security Department will collect the fee but
that he does not know the mechanics of how it will do so. He says his department
is discussing with the State Department whether international students might pay
the Sevis fee when they apply for their visas at a consulate or embassy
overseas.
Mr. Clubb and other college officials say they would prefer that option to
having colleges collect the fee. A potential downside, he says, is that other
countries might retaliate and increase the fees they charge for U.S. citizens to
get visas to cross their borders.
http://chronicle.com
Section: Government & Politics
Volume 50, Issue 11, Page A28