New costs associated with the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System will be passed onto international students attending schools around the country.

SEVIS helps track international students in the United States who attend school on a temporary visa. When SEVIS began in August, it was originally given start-up funds through congress. Now, the cost of funding the program will be placed on those who are being tracked by it.

The new fee is estimated to be about $100 per visa, but an exact amount has not been confirmed by the DHS. This is the first time international students will be asked to pay a fee specifically for SEVIS.

In a letter addressed to the DHS, the NAFSA Association of International Educators strongly criticized the proposed fees.

“It is difficult to give much credence to the process by which the DHS has arrived at the proposed fee amount,” according to the letter. NAFSA estimates that the fee should be set at $35 per student.

Eric Merchant, coordinator of international student programs at Sacramento State, said he expects a decline in the number of international students on campus because of a combination of issues dealing with immigration. Sac State is home to approximately 708 international students from 78 different countries. SEVIS requires that international students keep all of their records current. Any change in address or drop in units must be reported by the student to the school. This list of requirements also includes notifying the university of a new job.

Each week, Merchant, along with another staff member at Sac State’s Global Exchange Office, combs through the records of all international students and reports any changes to the DHS.

“SEVIS is a time consuming process,” Merchant said.

According to a recent study completed by the Institute of International Education, the annual growth rate for international students attending college in the U.S. has slowed to less than one percent increase. This slowdown comes after five years of steady increases. The same study also estimates that international students contribute nearly $12 billion a year to the U.S. economy.

“We are concerned that the current proposals for the SEVIS fee payment will be barriers for international student access to American schools,” Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum said in a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Under the current proposal, international students will be required to pay the SEVIS fee either by paying with a credit card through the Internet or by mailing a check, drawn from an American bank.

McCollum notes that in some areas of the world, students may not have access to the Internet, while postal service is often unreliable.

The new fees should be implemented sometime this year. The money generated from the new fees will not be shared with Sac State, Merchant said.