SEVP, which refers to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, sometimes gets mixed up with SEVIS, which stands for the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.

SEVP is the program which relies on SEVIS, a computer database system, to keep track of foreign nationals who come to the United States to take classes or bring their scholarly expertise to educational institutions.

The SEVP is part of the government’s National Security Investigations Division that controls the admission of foreign exchange students to U.S. schools.

The Homeland Security Department, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, oversees the program. SEVP enables government organizations to obtain information on nonimmigrants who want to study in the United States.

The government uses the term “nonimmigrant” to describe foreign nationals who want to come to the country for specific periods of time and then return to their homelands. These are visitors -- not immigrants who want to move to the United States permanently.

SEVP manages nonimmigrant students with F and M visa classifications and their dependent family members. The U.S. State Department manages Exchange Visitor Programs that bring nonimmigrant exchange scholars and experts with the J visa classification.

Both SEVP and the State Department rely on the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) to monitor schools and their foreign nonimmigrant students. SEVIS is an Internet-accessible database that holds information about exchange visitors and foreign students participating in SEVP.

SEVIS was launched in 2002. The idea was to streamline a cumbersome bureaucratic hodge-podge into one central database.

Tracking foreign students became a sensitive issue after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Only one of the hijackers entered the country with a student visa, but some of them either posed as students or attended classes in the U.S. at one time or another.

Access to the SEVIS system is restricted. Those wanting to use it must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. School and educational program officials have to be authorized as Designated School Officials by the government.

Tracking and Reporting Requirements
The government requires schools and programs that are hosting students and scholars on F, M and J visas to report their visitors’ tracking information, such as changes of address, fields of study, class attendance and employment status. Institutions are also required to report disciplinary action against visa holders, such as academic suspension. In some cases, institutions may also have to report criminal convictions.

The performance of the SEVP became an issue in October 2012 when federal authorities arrested a foreign student from Bangladesh in Manhattan and charged him with attempting to set off a bomb at the New York Federal Reserve Building.

Quazi Mohammad RezwanulAhsanNafis, 21, had entered the U.S. on a student visa to attend Southeast Missouri State University but transferred to the ASA Institute of Business and Computer Technology in New York. His arrest prompted calls from Congress to toughen the tracking requirements of the SEVP. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the government needed to do a better job of monitoring the movement of foreign students.