Foreign- student fee starts

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed yesterday that international students pay a $100 fee, the maximum allowed by law, to support the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The system is used to track foreign students and exchange visitors while they are in the United States.

The fee proposal, which has been expected for some time, has been the cause of much consternation among educators and international students.

"What concerns me is this is another hurdle that will make coming to the United States for higher education more difficult," said Curt DeVere, director of the International Services Office (ISO). "If payment becomes more difficult ... there may be a point when a student says, 'I'm going to Australia instead.'"

According to DHS statements, the fee is intended to defray the cost of the program, which Congress mandated to be self-supporting. The exact amount was determined after an evaluation of the costs to design, develop and maintain the system. After a 60-day public-comment period, an interim or final rule will be established.

According to the published proposal in the Federal Registry, "If the fees are not imposed or are imposed at a lesser amount, the public could incur the intangible cost of reduced security as a result of more limited ability to ensure compliance (with SEVIS)."

One of the primary concerns is that the fee-collection method might be a barrier to students even applying in the first place, according to DeVere. Today's proposal attempted to ease some of those concerns.

According to the statement, "DHS is cognizant of the fact that many prospective students and exchange visitors are from developing countries that may have delays in mail delivery and may lack easy access to the Internet."

However, many are still concerned that students would be required to pay the fee prior to submitting their visa applications. Multiple national organizations have proposed alternate methods of collecting the fee.

"The most common proposal is that international students pay the fee upon entry into the country, which has some logic to it," said Vice Provost Steven Olswang.

Even after using SEVIS for 10 months, ISO counselor Kathy Sorensen remains nervous about the efficiency of the system, and the addition of another step in the process is not encouraging.

"The fee adds one more element to an already very complicated system," said Sorenson. "It's going to take some time for the system to be up and running for those of us on the grunt line."

According to DeVere, the additional step could also lengthen already long delays for students trying to get visas.

Many advocacy organizations, including GSEAC/UAW, have endorsed an academic-visa reform petition asking that universities waive the SEVIS fee. According to Olswang, the UW has not considered such action even as a loan, since Washington provisions prohibit lending the credit of the state to an individual.

Institutions of higher education already pay for the SEVIS system. Universities pay $580 to apply to use the system, in addition to a $350 fee every two years for recertification.

However, according to DeVere, these numbers don't include all the costs the UW has incurred to get SEVIS up and running.

"The numbers are elusive; we can count software, but it would be much harder to count how much time has been put in by multiple offices," said DeVere. "It has been a major, major undertaking at the University."