The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has a continuing requirement for the operations and maintenance of the current SEVP Information System (SEVIS).

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) is part of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) National Security Division (NSD) within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). SEVP is responsible for managing the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). SEVIS is an internet-based application that allows electronic reporting and monitoring of nonimmigrant students, exchange visitors (EVs), and their dependents.

With over a million students and exchange visitors (EVs) in the United States (U.S.) each year, international education and cultural exchange brings billions of dollars annually into the U.S. economy. SEVIS is used by schools and programs across the U.S. and its territories to create and maintain international student, EVs, and dependent records. Government officials from several federal departments and agencies rely on SEVIS data to determine nonimmigrant eligibility for visas, for admission to the U.S. for immigration benefits, for removal from the country for status violations, and to identify immigration fraud. Institutions are monitored for compliance with applicable regulations. As a result, SEVIS has been designated a high value asset by ICE.

Two different government agencies regulate and monitor international students, EVs and the organizations that bring them into the country:

•  SEVP regulates international students participating in F-1 academic programs and M-1 vocational programs.
•  The Office of Private Sector Exchange (OPSE), an office within the Department of State’s (DoS) Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs regulates and oversees the J-1 exchange visitor programs which encompasses the following 16 categories, each with their own distinct set of regulations:
  • Au Pair
  • Camp Counselor
  • College and University Student
  • Government Visitor
  • Intern
  • International Visitor
  • Physician
  • Professor
  • Research Scholar
  • Secondary School Student
  • Short-Term Scholar
  • Specialist
  • STEM Initiatives
  • Summer Work Travel
  • Teacher
  • Trainee

Institutions that want to bring in international students and EVs must use SEVIS to seek authorization from the U.S. government to do so. Schools must petition SEVP for certification while exchange programs must apply for designation through the OPSE. The appropriate government agency reviews the submissions, vets the individuals nominated to administer the program for the institution and renders a decision through SEVIS. The approved school or sponsor officials gain access to SEVIS in one of the following user roles:

• Principal Designated School Official (PDSO)
• Designated School Official (DSO)
• Responsible Officer (RO)
• Alternate Responsible Officer (ARO)

Once certified the PDSO, DSO, RO, or ARO can issue Certificates of Eligibility to nonimmigrants accepted into their programs. These officials are legally required to update SEVIS to reflect:

• Changes to the institution’s data
• Changes to the nonimmigrant’s data and/or continued participation in their program.

The bulk of data in a nonimmigrant record is entered into SEVIS by one of these officials.

Schools and programs with large numbers of international students or EVs use third-party software to create and maintain their student records in SEVIS. These software programs, developed by a third party, interact with SEVIS using Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas and Application Programing Interface (APIs) provided by SEVP. This process is referred to as the Batch system.

SEVIS exchanges information with other federal systems to allow stakeholders to better monitor the status of an international student or EV throughout their stay in the U.S.. This allows SEVIS to meet requirements of the Unifying and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act (Public Law 107-56 passed on October 26, 2001).

• Provide support for all SEVIS systems ensuring the systems remain operational and accessible to end users while continuing current efforts to stabilize the application, incrementally improving the system’s architecture, technology stack, and business functionality to achieve goals established by the System Owner, Product Owners, and OCIO ITPM.
• Ensure that SEVIS systems and its interfaces are accessible to end users 24 hours 7 days a week. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Perform preventive maintenance
  • Apply security patches
  • Upgrade software
  • Monitor interface and system performance
  • Complete needed data fixes that the business can not
  • Maintain/update technical system documentation
• Work with the ITPMs, and the Product Owner teams to achieve an appropriate, prioritized balance of technical and business improvements aimed at advancing the government’s vision/goals for a stabilized system with an updated architecture that better conforms to evolving DHS/ICE standards and addresses the national security needs as outlined in OCIO and SEVP planning documents, to include the SMU Five Year plan.
• Use existing and approved tools, capabilities, and environments approved by ICE to support this contract. The Contractor shall use cloud services and continued adaptive maintenance needs as defined by the government to account for new business and regulatory requirement needs.
• Develop, document and manage processes, procedures, people, material, and information required to support, maintain, and operate the software aspects of the SEVIS systems and applications. This includes sustaining engineering, data management, configuration management, environment, and protection of critical program information, information technology security, supportability and interoperability functions, and technology refresh. In cooperation with the ITPM, the contractor shall recommend and implement technologies and solutions that will enhance business value.