650-1 Foreign Students – INS
Reporting and Compliance Policy
Created 2001-11-01
Based upon NAFSA materials, a recognized organization of international educators, international students fall within one of two general classifications. Depending upon which classification the student falls into, Goshen College has different obligations.
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Students who are admitted with proper VISA status. For students who are admitted to the College with proper VISA status and are issued either Form I-20A-B or I-20M-N, INS regulations require the College to maintain some general information. That information includes name, date of birth, country of citizenship, address, student status, date of commencement of studies, degree program and field of student, termination date and reason, if known. Based upon the NAFSA material it appears that the reporting form utilized by the INS is currently in a state of flux. Clearly the College has an obligation to maintain this general information and provide it to the INS when requested by the INS. The NAFSA materials further provide that a school is not required by the INS to report out-of-status students or students who have terminated their studies between reporting periods.
Based upon the foregoing, for those students to whom the College issues a form I-20, there is an obligation to maintain the general information listed above and to provide that information periodically to the INS, at the request of the INS. However, there does not appear to be any on-going obligation to verify the continued status of an international student and no obligation to report to the INS if a student terminates studies or becomes out of status.
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Students who are admitted without proper INS status. The NAFSA materials indicate that schools may admit students to whom the school has not issued a Form I-20. According to the NAFSA materials, the legal status of a student who was not issued a Form I-20 “is a matter between the alien and INS.” The NAFSA materials further provide that a school does not jeopardize its ability to enroll F-1 or M-1 students by admitting and enrolling other aliens, regardless of their status. As a result, it would appear that if the College admits students, even with the knowledge that those students do not have appropriate VISA status, the College is not risking its ability to function under the I-20 program, is not obligated to report those students to the INS, and is not prohibited from providing those students with financial aid.
Students that do not have currently valid student VISA’s are not to be employed under current INS regulations. The International Student office has in place a procedure whereby appropriate personnel at the College are alerted if a student no longer has valid VISA status.
