The system will link every U.S. consulate with every INS port of entry and all 74,000 educational institutions eligible to host foreign students, Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, said Friday. The institutions include colleges, universities, technical schools and high schools.
The INS wants all schools participating by Jan. 30, said Hartle, whose organization represents 1,800 private and public colleges and universities. He has met with INS and educational officials to discuss the plan, which Attorney General John Ashcroft planned to announce Friday.
"What the INS is trying to do on a very compressed timetable is orders of magnitude harder than any federal agency has attempted to do before with colleges and universities and other schools," Hartle said.
The INS for three decades has required colleges and universities to compile information on international students. But because of the volume of paper it received, the INS told schools in 1988 to keep the files on campus.
The INS has been under pressure from Congress to get the computerized system running since the Sept. 11 attacks. Three of the 19 hijackers were in the country on student visas -- one had entered on such a visa, while two others, including alleged ringleader Mohammed Atta, entered on travel visas and switched to student visas.
Hartle said that when the new system is operational, foreign students accepted by a U.S. school will be sent an INS form I-20. The school will enter the student's information into the INS tracking system. The student then will have to pay a $95 registration fee and will be given a paper receipt.
The student must show that receipt and a completed I-20 form to apply for a visa at a consulate. If the visa is granted, the consulate will note it in the INS' tracking system. When the student arrives in America, the INS will note that in the database, which will notify the school to expect the student on campus within 30 days. If the student doesn't show, the campus must contact the INS within 24 hours.
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