U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) recently urged federal government officials to quickly remove a potential barrier facing international transfer students who want to begin their American university studies in person in the spring.
Rep. Davis requested that officials establish a protocol that ensures international students previously approved and set to attend universities in-person who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic are able to do so without disruption, according to an Oct. 9 letter he sent to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Senior Official Tony Pham.
Specifically, the congressman urged the officials to quickly update student records in the ICE Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database, which tracks holders of F-1 student visas.
“Those students’ SEVIS records were transferred to their new universities so that they could begin a new program of study,” Rep. Davis wrote. “However, some of these students left the U.S. before the school year began and ended up not returning to the U.S. for the new academic year, either by choice or because they were unable to travel due to the pandemic.
“In some cases, they opted to begin their program online overseas, while others chose to defer their studies to a future semester,” wrote Rep. Davis, whose 13th congressional district includes the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), which has more than 11,000 international students in attendance.
“Universities are required to keep SEVIS records up to date but they are unable to make changes in these cases as the records cannot be registered because the students are not currently in the U.S. and have not reported to school,” wrote the congressman. “SEVIS also does not permit Designated School Officials to defer the start dates of transfer students.”
Unless these records are updated within 60 days of when the students’ program began, Rep. Davis wrote that they will terminate automatically, impacting more than 250 students at UIUC, “… and potentially tens of thousands more at universities across the country.”
“I urge your full and fair consideration of taking swift action to find a solution that ensures those students’ records do not automatically terminate, and that universities do not face additional difficulty enrolling international students in the spring,” Rep. Davis wrote.