The recently passed massive immigration law, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (“IIRAIRA”), contains a number of provisions which affect individuals coming to the United States to study. Over the next several months, we will address several key areas in the new law affecting students and universities.
Section 641 of IIRAIRA establishes a “Program to Collect Information Relating to Nonimmigrant Foreign Students and Other Exchange Program Participants.” The Attorney General of the US will collect information about students and exchange visitors (and their spouses and children) from F-1, J-1 and M-l visa program sponsors (elementary and secondary schools will not be included, however, unless they are J-1 program sponsors). Data collection will begin on or before January 1, 1998. The INS will collect a fee to be imposed on F, M and J visa holders from the program sponsors. Though the law says the fee should be collected beginning on April 1, 1997, the INS has stated that it will not begin to collect the fee until it first conducts a pilot program of the new program out of its Atlanta district office in the Fall of this year. Sponsors who fail to comply with the terms of the data collection program are subject to being barred from issuing I-20s and IAP-66s.
At the beginning of the program, only data from five countries will be collected. Additional countries can be added at any time while the program is ongoing. Within four years of the initiation of the program, the INS will issue a report on the program which shall include recommendations regarding the expansion of the program. Within six months of the issuance of the report, the INS will expand to the program to cover all foreign nationals no later than one year after the issuance of the report (i.e., all nationals will be covered by 2003).
The following information will be collected under the program:
* visa category, date of visa issuance and date of visa extension or status change;
* for students, current academic status (including whether the student is full or part time) and whether the student has received disciplinary actions as a result of a criminal convication
* for exchange visitors, whether the visitor is complying with the program terms and whether the visitor’s status in the program has been affected by a criminal conviction (the new law does not make clear whether a J-1 program sponsor must submit information to INS concerning program compliance in addition to the information currently being supplied to the United States Information Agency)
Data collection under the new program is supposed to be collected electronically to the “extent practicable.” The exact definition of this term remains unclear. Institutions may be stuck purchasing new software and hardware in order to laserprint documents and barcode them using a “2D” format. The INS is discussing options that will allow it to automatically extract data from program sponsors’ databases, but details on whether this will occur are being worked out.
As noted above, along with the collection of data, program sponsors are responsible for collecting a fee from F, M and J visa holders (the principal visa holder as well as their spouse and child or children). The fee cannot initially exceed $100, though the INS has estimated the fees will range from $25 to $75. J visa holders working for the federal government (to be determined by the USIA) will be exempt. The fee will be imposed on the visa holders at the time of registering with an institution or, in the case of a non-student J visa holder, when starting the J-1 program activity. The INS has not yet stated whether the student or J visa holder would have to pay a fee if he or she transferred programs, but they have suggested that they would not impose the fee again.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.