The Immigration and Naturalization Service yesterday extended the mandatory date for schools to use its new foreign student tracking system to Feb. 15. The INS had planned to require schools to use the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System as of today. SEVIS automates a paper-based method of tracking foreign students with visas to attend U.S. schools, which some Sept. 11 terrorists used to enter the country. The USA Patriot Act passed in October 2001 accelerated the schedule for implementing SEVIS so that it would be mandatory by today. INS said that during the grace period that ends in mid-February, it will encourage schools to use SEVIS to enter student information via a Web connection or batch processing. The agency will continue to accept paper forms during the grace period. Full Story
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