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| TEXT: NEW INFORMATION SYSTEM FACILITATES VISAS FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS AND VISITORS | ||
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(State
Department official says system also will enhance U.S.
security) September 26, 2002 The
United States is implementing a new electronic information system that
will allow foreign nationals to visit the United States with greater ease
on student or exchange visas while enhancing U.S. security, a State
Department official told Congressional committees September 24. The
system is a result of recently passed legislation, the Enhanced Border
Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, which sets new requirements on
visa issuances for students and participants in exchange programs. "Such
visitors make an important contribution to our nation's intellectual and
academic climate as well as to our nation's economy," said Stephen Edson,
acting managing director of the department’s Visa Service Bureau of
Consular Affairs. "At the
same time, the need to more accurately monitor the presence and activities
of those visitors while they enjoy the benefits of our open and democratic
institutions is abundantly clear." The
legislation mandated that after September 11, 2002, "[a] visa may not be
issued to a student or exchange visitor unless the Department of State has
received from [an approved educational institution or exchange visitor
program] electronic evidence ... of the alien's acceptance at that
institution, and a consular officer has reviewed the applicant's visa
record." The
State Department is working with the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) and the exchange community to design and develop the Student
and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). However, to comply with the
September 11, 2002, deadline, the State Department has launched the
Interim Student and Exchange Authentication System (ISEAS), Edson
said. ISEAS
provides for the electronic verification of student and exchange visitor
visas until SEVIS is fully implemented. According to Edson, the process
under ISEAS comprises the following steps: --
Those who wish to obtain visas to study or participate in an exchange
program in the United States must first apply to and receive acceptance
from an educational institution that has been approved by the INS (in the
case of "F" and "M" student visas) or the Department of State (for
exchange visitor "J" visas). --
The approved institution or program sponsor must complete the appropriate
form (Form I-20 A-B for academic or language institutions, Form I-20 M-N
for vocational schools, and Form DS-2019 for designated Exchange Visitor
programs). --
Academic institutions and program sponsors must enter information from the
required forms into the ISEAS web application (provided at
www.iseas.state.gov ) for transmission to the Department. --
Once ISEAS confirms that the information entered is valid, it issues a
confirmation number to the academic institutions and sponsors, and the
information becomes available to consular officers in the field. Since
the launch of ISEAS, more than 2,300 educational institutions and exchange
program sponsors have entered over 36,800 records into the system, and 193
visa-issuing posts have verified over 2,600 cases, Edson said. "ISEAS
has provided both the Department and INS a better system to verify
incoming foreign and exchange students, until SEVIS becomes operational in
January 2003," he added. Following
is the text of Edson’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to Congressional
committees September 24: (begin
text) STATEMENT
OF STEPHEN A. EDSON BEFORE
THE SUBCOMMITTEES ON 21ST CENTURY COMPETITIVENESS AND SELECT EDUCATION
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE UNITED
STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER
24, 2002 Thank
you for the opportunity to appear before you this afternoon to explain the
State Department's role in the electronic verification of student and
exchange visitor visas, and to provide you with an update on our
implementation efforts. It
is a tribute to the quality of the education system in the United States,
and to the opportunities offered by a myriad of U.S. educational and
cultural exchange programs, that so many foreign nationals continue to
pursue academic and cultural opportunities here. Our student and exchange visitor
visa policy is based on the democratic values of an open society, and the
general perception that such visitors make an important contribution to
our nation's intellectual and academic climate as well as to our nation's
economy. At
the same time, the need to more accurately monitor the presence and
activities of those visitors while they enjoy the benefits of our open and
democratic institutions is abundantly clear. We in the State Department
are actively participating with the INS and the exchange community in the
design and development of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information
System (SEVIS). State
is working closely with INS to develop the processes link that will allow
our embassies and consulates around the world to first confirm the SEVIS
records of student and exchange visitor visa applicants, and then inform
the INS of every student and exchange visitor visa that we issue. I defer
to my INS colleague to outline SEVIS in detail, but I believe it is the
permanent system that will contribute to our national security as it adds
integrity to the student and exchange visa issuing process. At
the same time we are working on SEVIS implementation, in response to a
separate legislative mandate the Department has launched the Interim
Student and Exchange Authentication System (ISEAS), which will provide for
the electronic verification of student and exchange visitor visas until
SEVIS is fully implemented. ISEAS
is a web-page based system that allows consular officers to verify the
acceptance of foreign students and exchange visitors who apply to enter
the United States in student ("F," "M") and exchange visitor ("J")
nonimmigrant visa categories based on information the schools or exchange
program sponsors enter directly into the system. That portion of the legislative
mandate that requires the Department to inform INS of F, M or J visa
issuance will be accomplished using the existing datashare link. As
you know, Section 501(c) of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry
Reform Act of 2002 mandates that from September 11, 2002 - which is 120
days after the Act's passage - until SEVIS is fully implemented, "[a] visa
may not be issued to a student or exchange visitor unless the Department
of State has received from [an approved educational institution or
exchange visitor program] electronic evidence ... of the alien's
acceptance at that institution, and a consular officer has reviewed the
applicant's visa record." ISEAS
is the means by which INS-approved educational institutions, and
Department-designated exchange programs meet this legislative
requirement. Consistent with
the legislation, ISEAS is being established as an interim system, with the
limited support and capacity implied by the term. ISEAS will stand alone
for its entire lifetime, and will not be able to share any data with
SEVIS. This is significant
because as mandatory SEVIS compliance grows near, and more and more
educational institutions and designated program sponsors become SEVIS
compliant, we will find ourselves in a situation where designated
officials will have to electronically register visa applicants into two
separate databases (ISEAS and SEVIS), and consular officers will have to
check both data bases to confirm the provenance of those documents, until
ISEAS sunsets with final SEVIS implementation on January 30, 2003. How
does ISEAS work? Aliens
who wish to obtain visas to study or participate in an exchange program in
the United States must first apply to an educational institution that has
been approved by the INS (in the case of "F" and "M" student visas) or the
Department of State (for exchange visitor "J" visas). When a student or exchange visitor
accepts an offer to study or engage in other exchange program activities,
the approved institution or program sponsor must complete the appropriate
form. Academic or language
institutions must complete the Form I-20 A-B, "Certificate of Eligibility
for Nonimmigrant (F-1) Student Status." Vocational schools must complete
the Form I-20 M-N, "Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant (M-1)
Student Status." Designated Exchange Visitor programs must complete Form
DS-2019, "Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (J-1)
Status." Section
501(c) of the Act requires the approved institution or designated exchange
program sponsor to transmit electronic evidence of the applicant's
acceptance to the Department.
Academic institutions and program sponsors enter information from
the required forms into the ISEAS web application (provided at
www.iseas.state.gov ) for transmission to the Department. ISEAS
consists of two independent computer based subsystems with data
transferred between the two.
The first subsystem contains an Internet website with a direct link
for approved institutions and exchange visitor programs to enter data from
the appropriate acceptance document.
To ensure data integrity, the ISEAS Internet subsystem validates
the identification data entered by the designated institution or program
official against approved lists of institutions or program sponsors. INS approved institutions or
program sponsors correspond to F and M visas, and State Department, Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs approved institutions or program
sponsors correspond to J visas. Once
ISEAS confirms that the institution or program is on one of the approved
lists, the designated institution or program official will enter certain
student or exchange visitor data, and the system returns to the school or
exchange official a confirmation number which is maintained as part of the
student's record. The ISEAS
confirmation number will serve as evidence that a particular visa
applicant's data has been entered into the ISEAS system, and is one of the
search criteria available to consular officers in the field. Due
to the very short development period mandated by the legislation, we were
unable to deploy ISEAS before September 11. Consequently, participating
academic institutions and program sponsors were unable to enter the
required data into ISEAS in advance. That
fact, coupled with the Act's clear wording - no student or exchange
visitor visa can be issued after September 11, 2002, without electronic
evidence of documentation of the alien's acceptance - meant that ISEAS
deployment represented a potentially significant interruption of student
and exchange visitor visa processing. We were concerned that many
participating institutions and program sponsors would be unable to enter
the required data into the system quickly enough to maintain smooth
processing of student and exchange visitor visas. Therefore,
to minimize ISEAS' impact on visa processing, we devised back-up
procedures to ensure that consular officers receive timely status
verification directly from sponsoring institutions and programs during the
first 30 days of ISEAS operation, September 11 through October 11,
2002. In
our ISEAS notification to posts, we advised consular sections that if a
particular F, M or J visa applicant's data is not in ISEAS, the applicant
should be advised to contact his or her sponsoring institution or program
and advise it of the need to enter data into ISEAS. Should the ISEAS option prove
unworkable, then during the first 30-days of ISEAS' lifespan posts may
accept direct e-mail confirmation of acceptance. In
cases of particular urgency, posts may send e-mail inquiries directly to
the sponsoring institutions and request e-mail confirmation of enrollment.
If in a particular case a post cannot make the electronic verification
directly, the Visa Office working with our colleagues in the Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs will seek the electronic verification
from the sponsoring institution and forward the electronic verification to
post. State
Department officers have alerted sponsors regarding the processes that are
in place and have asked that they respond promptly to any inquiries from
our consular officers. In
the days since ISEAS launched we have communicated telephonically and via
e-mail with hundreds of academic institutions and exchange program
sponsors, working through technical and notification issues and
facilitating the electronic notification of students and exchange visitors
both within the ISEAS system, and when startup technical issues inhibited
access to the system, by utilizing the backup procedures mentioned a
moment ago. ISEAS
was intended to be an interim mechanism to collect information on foreign
students and exchange visitors pending SEVIS development and not a
comprehensive solution to better track these nonimmigrant
individuals. Mr. Chairman and
Members of the Committee, as of the close of yesterday's business day,
over 2,300 educational institutions and exchange program sponsors have
entered over 36,800 records into ISEAS. 193 visa-issuing posts have
verified over 2,600 cases. ISEAS has provided both the Department and INS
a better system to verify incoming foreign and exchange students, until
SEVIS becomes operational in January 2003. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for permitting me to share
this information with you this morning. I would be pleased to answer any
questions that you might have. (end
text) | ||
