Final SEVIS Fee/School Recertification Rule Effective October 27, 2008

ICE published the final SEVIS fee/recertification rule on September 26, 2008. The rule is effective on October 27, 2008.

Brief Summary

The rule has three principal parts:

Item	Before 10/27/08	On and After 10/27/08
I-901 F/M Students	$100	$200
I-901 J-1 Exchange Visitors	$100	$180
I-901 J-1 Au Pairs, Camp Counselors, Summer Work Study	$35	$35
I-901 J-1 Federally sponsored exchange visitor programs (program code starts with G-1, G-2, G-3, or G-7)	$0	$0
F or M School Initial Certification	$230	$1700
Initial Certification Site Visits, and Site Visits for Adding an Additional Campus	$350	$655
Recertification	N/A	$0

Some notes about recertification under the new rule, from an SEVP guidance document:

Recertification will occur in phases, i.e., not all schools will apply for recertification at the same time.
There will be about 400 schools included in the first phase. SEVP expects to send that first group a notice on January 2, 2009, informing those schools that they will have 180 days from that date to complete their application for recertification.
Each month following the first notification, SEVP will send 180-day notices to additional schools, until all schools currently eligible for recertification have gone through the process.
A school cannot begin the recertification process until it receives its 180-day notice. The notice will be sent to the PDSO and all DSOs as well.
After being recertified the first time, schools will receive a new certification expiration date, and will then have to apply for recertification before that date every two years thereafter.

The final rule also establishes the following changes:

Alter the list of records a school is required to keep on individual students
Specify I-17 upkeep requirements
New rules for "out-of-cycle" review of certified schools, which DHS can institute at any time during a school's certification period.

ICE

Sep 26, 2008

Laws/Regulations, NAFSA Practice Advisories