The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking new steps to help foreign students, as well as U.S. educational institutions, to comply with the Student Exchange Visitor and Information System (SEVIS) filing deadline. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. urges Taiwan students who are enrolled in the U.S. but currently abroad to review these procedures before attempting to enter or re-enter the U.S.
According to the U.S. authorities, all U.S. educational institutions with a foreign student population must be certified participants in SEVIS and have information about these current foreign students entered into SEVIS by August 1, 2003.
However, as of July 29, more than 600 U.S. schools have yet to file applications, or have filed applications late in the process and therefore may not meet the deadline. Because of these late filings, there is concern that foreign students attending schools that have failed to meet the SEVIS deadline will be denied entry into the U.S.
The United States is taking several new steps to ensure that foreign students enrolled at U.S. educational institutions will be able to enter the U.S. to study at these schools, even if their school failed to meet the deadline. For more information about these procedures, please visit the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services website at http://www.bcis.gov .
