Foul-ups test foreign students and schools

Congressional committee hears tales of ongoing problems with visas and SEVIS.

| 3 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
3:00
Share

WASHINGTON, DC — The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) for tracking foreign students is: 1) technologically flawed; 2) functioning poorly; 3) a disaster; 4) a crisis; or, 5) all those and more, according to witnesses who gave testimony March 26 at a House Committee on Science hearing on visa backlogs.

Committee members and witnesses discussed the importance of foreign students, particularly graduate students, to US science, as well as specific incidents involving foreign students blocked from entering or returning to the US because of visa-processing problems. But particularly unhappy testimony focused on the new SEVIS student-tracking system.

"The damn thing doesn't work," David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, told The Scientist, after the hearing Wednesday. "It's a great idea, but there's been no meeting of the minds among the agencies that are supposed to make it work.

"It was unrealistic to expect a computer system ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Willie Schatz

    This person does not yet have a bio.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio