STUDENT AND EXCHANGE VISITOR PROGRAM (SEVP) FEE INCREASES

Congress mandated a fee-based system to better keep track of international students and exchange visitors in the United States. To accomplish this task, the Department of Homeland Security established the Student Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) under U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is the database that allows SEVP to track international students, exchange visitors and their dependents to ensure that they are in the United States for the purposes they stated. SEVIS currently monitors more than one million records of international students, exchange visitors and their dependents.

Following months of study and consultation with stakeholders in the educational community, SEVP is implementing program changes needed to further improve the important task of welcoming international students and exchange visitors while protecting national security. These changes include fee increases that will dramatically improve the administration of the program. The fee increase is the first of its kind in five years and will affect foreign students, exchange visitors and the schools that host them.

The new funding will create a new database that will improve interactive features for school administrators and dramatically reduce user errors. SEVP will begin school recertifications to help verify and further educate school administrators on program requirements. The fee increases will allow the program to hire more regional field liaisons to provide day-to-day advice and assistance to schools in support of their programs. Additional field agent positions will also be added to investigate threats to the system. Schools currently participating in SEVP will not be required to pay additional fees to recertify under this new fee structure.

Click here to see the changes in SEVIS fees.