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[Previous entry: "Department of State Describes Border Commuter Student Act of 2002"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "CHANGE IN NON IMMIGRANT VISA PHOTO STANDARDS"] 03/04/2003 Entry: "SEVIS AND NEW STUDENT AND EXCHANGE VISITOR FORMS" Beginning January 30, 2003, all forms I-20 issued by academic and vocational educational institutions, and all forms DS-2019 issued by exchange visitor program sponsors, must be created within the SEVIS system. 1. Summary: During the month of January 2003 consular sections will be granted access to the INS Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Septel will advise posts of the SEVIS "go-live" date and expand on instructions contained in this cable. SEVIS is the permanent system that will record electronically all significant events in the U.S. "careers" of international students (F and M visas) and exchange visitor program participants (J visas.) Beginning January 30, 2003, all forms I-20 issued by academic and vocational educational institutions, and all forms DS-2019 issued by exchange visitor program sponsors, must be created within the SEVIS system. For those documents created on or after that date only the SEVIS system can be used to electronically verify their provenance in support of visa applications. See paras 8-12 for preliminary SEVIS verification and issuance instructions. Reminder: SEVIS is not yet live and as yet not available as described in paras 8-12. 2. SEVIS will replace ISEAS as the mechanism for electronic verification of prospective student/exchange visitor status. As of January 30, 2003 educational institutions and exchange visitor program sponsors will no longer be able to enter records in ISEAS (see reftels B.) However, ISEAS will remain available to consular employees as a means of verifying both non-SEVIS forms I-20/DS-2019 issued prior to January 30, 2003, as well as some SEVIS-generated forms I-20/DS-2019. Consular officers adjudicating F, J and M visa cases must be alert to the issuance date of the I-20/DS-2019 at hand, and the implications for the validity of the document as well as the method of electronic verification. First-time students and exchange visitors will be able to enter the U.S. with non-SEVIS documents issued prior to January 30, 2003. However, after that date all continuing students must present a SEVIS-generated form I-20 or DS-2019 in support of a visa application. See para 5. See reftel A for background on SEVIS, some of which is repeated in this cable, as well as a description of SEVIS-generated forms I-20 and DS-2019.
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