Closer tabs on student visas

A year ago, administrator Sonja Mackenzie was up to her eyeballs processing foreign-student applications to attend the University of West Florida, when an e-mail from the Department of Homeland Security popped up onto her computer screen.

At first, the content of the message seemed routine. The government was confirming receipt of the university's application to use its new tracking system for foreign students. Ms. MacKenzie, however, quickly spotted the problem. Her school had already been preapproved months earlier.

So she called Washington to tell security officials their new high-tech system had goofed. But as it turned out it had not. Someone was attempting to masquerade as the university, hoping to gain access to the system. With that access would come the ability to print out applications for student visas.

An investigation traced the bogus application to the overseas e-mail account of a prospective student - not a terrorist.

It could have been worse. Ever since a 9/11 hijacker entered the US on a student visa (and two others received visas posthumously), Congress has demanded a better accounting of students in the US. The computerized Student Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, has been the main result.

Now, one year after the Aug. 1 deadline for United States schools with foreign students to join SEVIS, the nation's most ambitious, complex, and controversial effort to track foreign students has smoothed many of the early bumps in its operation, federal and university officials agree. But on some critical issues, like corrupt school officials gaming the system, vulnerabilities remain.

On the plus side, school officials report routine, easy access to SEVIS. Some say the computerization has reduced paper shuffling; others say that it actually encourages these students to stay in school and maintain their course load.

As of mid-July, the SEVIS system was tracking 772,129 active foreign students at 7,318 schools, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security.

One of the system's aims is to screen out institutional applicants who fail to meet educational criteria - which some euphemistically have called "ghost schools" or "visa mills."

During the past year, at least 843 schools were denied access to SEVIS because they applied late or did not meet criteria. This group includes some institutions that routinely granted admission and an I-20 - the key document needed to gain a student visa at a US consulate or embassy abroad - for a steep price, but ended up requiring little real education, officials said. Another 958 applicants are still awaiting certification.

"In the first year we've been particularly pleased with SEVIS's overall success," says Russ Knocke, an ICE spokesman. "It's a good sign the SEVIS program is catching those individuals it needs to catch."

One key concern among opponents of SEVIS had been the fear that besides being cumbersome, the system might become a dragnet for harassing foreign students. Homeland security officials are quick to point out that only a small minority of students come under intense scrutiny, with a still smaller group arrested.

Since last August, the SEVIS system has produced 8,261 "violator leads." Out of those, only 1,122 qualified as "violator leads for action," which required sending field office agents to campus. Of those, 136 cases ended in an arrest.

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