ICE Proposes Changes to SEVP for International Students
By Danielle Beach-Oswald
On November 20, 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a News Release announcing proposed changes to international student programs. According to ICE’s website, “ICE is proposing changes to the requirements governing its Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) that are intended to improve management of international student programs and increase opportunities for study by spouses and children of nonimmigrant students.”
The ultimate goal of these changes is to increase the competitiveness of the United States in the fields of economics, science and technology by encouraging top international students to study in the U.S. ICE ensures that this goal is to encourage top international students to study in the U.S. while simultaneously maintaining the highest national security standards. The proposed change would allow the spouses and dependents of international students on F-1 or M-1 status to study at a SEVP-certified school as long as it is less than full-time.
The major change with this propose would be to “Provide school officials more flexibility in determining the number of designated school officials to nominate for oversight of campuses by eliminating the limit of 10 DSOs in favor of a more flexible approach.” The creation of greater flexibility will better assist students and their families with the process of filling out necessary forms and obtaining certain benefits in the U.S.
According to the news release, “The proposed rule was submitted for publication to the Federal Register and is open for public comment until Jan. 21, 2014. Ice encourages the public to submit formal input on the proposed rule through www.regulations.gov during the open comment period.”