**GAO-05-440T**                      Published: Mar 17, 2005. Publicly Released: Mar 17, 2005.                  

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## Highlights

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is an Internet-based system run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect and record information on foreign students, exchange visitors, and their dependents--before they enter the United States, when they enter, and during their stay. GAO has reported (GAO-04-690) that although the system had a number of performance problems during the first year that its use was required, several SEVIS performance indicators were positive at that time (June 2004). Nonetheless, some problems were still being reported by educational organizations. In addition, concerns have been raised that the number of international students and exchange visitors coming to the United States has been negatively affected by the U.S. visa process. Accordingly, the Congress asked GAO to testify on its work on SEVIS and related issues. This testimony is based on its June 2004 report, augmented by more recent GAO work, reports that we issued in February 2004 and 2005 on student and visiting scholar visa processing, and related recent research by others.

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## Topics

Homeland Security

Cultural exchange programsData collectionExchange of persons programsF-1 VisasForeign studentsHomeland securityJ-1 VisasPerformance measuresProgram evaluationProgram managementStrategic planning