NGLU c SEVIS conference call: NAFSA, DHS, CIEE, Council on Standards, AACRAO, ACE Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "NGLU c SEVIS conference call: NAFSA, DHS, CIEE, Council on Standards, AACRAO, ACE Wednesday, October 22, 2003"

Brianne Harrison
5 years ago
Views:

NGLU 2003-10-c SEVIS conference call: NAFSA, DHS, CIEE, Council on Standards, AACRAO, ACE Wednesday, October 22, 2003 Contents 1. SEVIS fee... 1 2. ICE to take over school certification role... 1 3.

1 NGLU c SEVIS conference call: NAFSA, DHS, CIEE, Council on Standards, AACRAO, ACE Wednesday, October 22, 2003 Contents 1. SEVIS fee ICE to take over school certification role ICE memo on SEVIS registration and reporting requirements sent New functionalities in the next SEVIS release Interface between SEVIS and US VISIT Proposed Fee Rule Updating DSO user profiles on file with Help Desk Incorrect Address listed on Preliminary Enrollment Memo Status of Alerts Summary Purpose of Active Students Requiring Status Verification list ICE Compliance Officers Same-Day Arrival & Registration OPT and Graduated Students on "Active Students Requiring Registration" List No action required for post-completion OPT students on "Active Students Requiring Status Verification" List Reverse Matriculation (e.g. from Ph.D. to M.S.) for J students SEVIS fee The proposed SEVIS fee regulation will be published on Monday, October 27 and available to view on Friday, October 24, There will be a 60-day comment period. (Note: access to view the rule and a NAFSA summary of the rule) 2. ICE to take over school certification role ICE is actively preparing to take over school certifications as of November 1, The facility layout and SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) are still being finalized. CIS will send 5 representatives to assist ICE with the transition for at least the first two weeks of November. After the end of the first two weeks, their continued need will be assessed. 3. ICE memo on SEVIS registration and reporting requirements sent A memorandum from Michael Garcia discussing reporting requirements was issued. (NAFSA note: NAFSA is currently working on a practice advisory on that topic.) 4. New functionalities in the next SEVIS release ICE discussed the anticipated F/M and J upgrades to SEVIS in the next release. However, they emphasized that there was no guarantee that all of the planned changes would be available by the next release, as each change needs to go through complete system testing. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the features listed below will be included in the next release. 1

2 Some Anticipated F/M Changes: Alert Lists - There will be fixes on several alert lists, including Active Students Requiring Registration (will no longer include students on OPT); the Active Students Requiring Status Update (be modified to not include students on summer and quarter programs). Several other Alert list problems will be corrected. SEVIS will be modified to allow for ability to authorize 3 or more CPT segments, and for multiple CPT authorizations that overlap. The event history list on the third page of the I-20 will be reduced to basic information. Event history from a student s previous school will no longer appear on the new school I-20. Some of the current I-20 creation reasons will be removed (NAFSA note: as of this upgrade DSOs will no longer be able to create new SEVIS records for continuing students). Lists in SEVIS will be in alphabetical order The search table will allow for a search of students with COS pending When you are transferring a student to another school, you will be able to see the school s full name, campus name and school code in the drop-down menu. Batch will be able to update records for students that have been transferred. Some Anticipated J Changes RO and ARO will be able to be RO and ARO for multiple EV programs. An ARO will be able to appoint a new RO Some of the current DS-2019 creation reasons for continuing EVs will be removed. Changes to an EV s biographical info will be able to be updated while in initial status. An A/RO will be able to cancel a record for individuals that choose not to come to the program Duration of stay will have several changes including, allowing 42 months as maximum duration of stay for research scholar/professors (to accommodate the discretionary 6- month extensions that A/ROs can approve in those categories) Batch will be able to update records for EVs that have been transferred. Dependent will not be marked as transferred prematurely All record updates will be sent to the CCD, not just status changes 5. Interface between SEVIS and US VISIT How will SEVIS interface with US VISIT? How is this interface currently being developed? We are concerned about sharing this data with other federal agencies/databases such as US VISIT. Background: In previous discussions, NAFSA relayed members concerns about the implications of "terminating" a record, particularly when the termination reason does not reflect the student's situation. This is not uncommon when the Help Desk has recommended a termination as an appropriate action in the process of a data fix. DHS Response: There are no specific updates this week. A representative from US VISIT will be invited to next week s call (October 29) to give specific updates. 6. Proposed Fee Rule NAFSA understands that a Comment Request for Form I-901 was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 17, DHS Response: DHS was not aware of the notice because the OMB issued this notice. 2

3 7. Updating DSO user profiles on file with Help Desk A few SEVIS users have reported that Help Desk staff have told them that information in their SEVIS profiles, specifically their place of employment, isn t accurate when they have spoken with Help Desk staff about system problems. Is the Bureau aware of this problem? How long does it take for a change in a DSO profile to be recorded in the system? Background: Help Desk staff called a school about an open ticket. It came out during the discussion that the DSO associated with the ticket had recently taken a job at another school. Although the DSO had been deleted as a school official in SEVIS; Help Desk staffs weren t aware that the DSO s profile had been changed. A similar situation also occurred when a Help Desk staffer was confused because a DSO that called to report a problem was still listed at her former place of employment. In this case, the official was deleted from the previous school, and added to the new school, but the Help Desk still has her profile associated with the initial school. EDS Response: The Help Desk staff utilize a system that is separate from SEVIS, called the Remedy System. The Remedy System allows representatives to locate ticket numbers and information quickly. DSOs that move institutions are therefore advised to mention any change in school or campus when speaking with a Help Desk representative, so that the Help Desk Remedy System can be updated. 8. Incorrect Address listed on Preliminary Enrollment Memo The address provided on the memo sent to schools that had been approved under the preliminary enrollment program is listed as SEVIS.Toolbox@dhs.gov. The correct address is Toolbox.SEVIS@dhs.gov. How will the Bureau provide users with the correct address? DHS Response: The corrected address has not yet been sent out. However, individuals are given the correct address when they call the telephone number provided in that memo (the telephone number is correct). After the transition of the SEVIS program to ICE is complete, a new notice will be utilized, and the new notice does include the correct address. 9. Status of Alerts Summary What is the status of the summary the Bureau plans to send to P/DSOs (via the Help Desk) on F SEVIS alerts? DHS Response: The draft is complete and is waiting final approval. The document will be distributed as an attachment to the schools explaining the new SEVIS functionality. 10. Purpose of Active Students Requiring Status Verification list What is the purpose of the Active Students Requiring Status Verification list? DHS Response: For students on the Active Students Requiring Status Verification alert list, appearance on that list is a status indicator, but there are no specific requirements for action to be taken. That alert list is informative for the most part, because it indicates that the record has not been updated in six months. (NAFSA Note: P/DSOs should have received this Help Desk notification and Alert Summary attachment on October 24). 3

4 11. ICE Compliance Officers We understand that DHS is planning to hire a number of compliance officers. Please tell us more about their responsibilities and their relationship to other DHS officers, such as CIS student school officers for example. How many officers does the Bureau plan to hire? When does the Bureau believe these positions will be filled? How will they be trained? What will be their primary and collateral responsibilities? Will they assume responsibility for student reinstatements? Will they take on anything currently performed by CIS student/school officers? Will CIS continue to support the role of student/school officer once the ICE compliance officers are in place? Are the two positions intended to be complementary? Will they work together? DHS Response: A representative from CEU will be invited on the next call (October 29) to address most of these questions. However, on the issue of reinstatements, ICE indicated that reinstatements will continue to be under the jurisdiction of BCIS. 12. Same-Day Arrival & Registration Does SEVIS prevent registrations on the same day that a student enters the US? Background: On October 13th a DSO attempted to register an F-1 student. The system responded with a validation error that read "you must correct the following error(s) before proceeding: Date of Entry must be prior to 10/13/2003." The POE data showed that he had entered earlier that day (on 10/13/03). The DSO waited until the following day, but when she went to register the record on the 14th, the data that had been entered with the validation error was appearing in the system, and the record showed as "active." Is this a known problem or a "glitch"? EDS Response: There is a system glitch with same-day entry and registration. However the problem with the record later appearing active has not been able to be replicated by EDS. Therefore they will conduct more research on the problem. 13. OPT and Graduated Students on "Active Students Requiring Registration" List We understand that DHS is aware that SEVIS does not generate accurate reports about students in SEVIS that require registration. Will this be corrected in the next release of SEVIS? Additional Information: During the Fall 03 registration period this was a big problem for semester-based institutions with large populations since they are not able to retrieve data from SEVIS. And, we believe this will be a problem next semester as well. FYI--SEVIS also lists students on OPT and those who have completed study on the Active Students Requiring Registration List. DHS Response: DHS anticipates that this alert list will be changed in the next SEVIS release, to no longer include students that are on OPT. 4

5 14. No action required for post-completion OPT students on "Active Students Requiring Status Verification" List We understand that we are not required to register students who are on post-completion OPT and appear on the alert for "Active Students Requiring Registration." However, these students also appear on the "Active Students Requiring Status Verification" a.k.a "the 6- month alert" list. Are schools required to "touch" the records of these students, even though no activity, other than the initial address change, may happen in the entire 12- month OPT period? DHS Response: Students on post-completion OPT will continue to be on the list, even after the 4.8 release, if their OPT is longer than six months. However, P/DSOs are not required to do a status verification or take other action for students on OPT. 15. Reverse Matriculation (e.g. from Ph.D. to M.S.) for J students J SEVIS does not allow a user to select a lower degree level via the matriculation screen. The Matriculate function offers the following options: Associate to Bachelors, Bachelors to Masters, Masters to Doctorate. It is not uncommon for students who begin Ph.D. programs to decide to end their program of study with a Masters degree. Response: DOS was not present on the call. The question is deferred until next week. 5

New questions. 1. I-515 Mailing Address. SEVIS Technical and Policy Conference Call. February 25, 2009

New questions. 1. I-515 Mailing Address. SEVIS Technical and Policy Conference Call. February 25, 2009 SEVIS Technical and Policy Conference Call February 25, 2009 Contents New questions... 1 1. I-515 Mailing Address... 1 2. Procedure for students who depart the US during the 30-day I-515A period... 2 3.