Order “Effective-Immediately"- Check foreign students visas at airports and border cr

[DesiOPT-FaceBook-Admin]

Homeland Security officials have redoubled their efforts to check foreign students visas at airports and border crossings since a Kazakh student charged with destroying evidence in the Boston Marathon bombings used an invalid visa to reenter the United States in January.

After the bombings, officials issued an order “effective *immediately’’ telling agents to verify that every foreign student coming into the United States has a valid visa, by checking their paper records against a computer database of foreign students. Officials are also making sure that Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency that screens arrivals at airports and borders, has updated information on foreign students.

This was posted on http://www.facebook.com/desiopt1 on May 6th 2013

[DesiOPT-FaceBook-Admin]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/03/federal-officials-redouble-checks-foreign-students-visas-after-marathon-bombings/7YrdYuRvduwNoyWQ9buTxI/story.html

[DesiOPT-FaceBook-Admin]

comment ---Because one of the friends of the Boston Marathon bomber (who has been charged with helping to cover up evidence from the attack) re-entered the US using an invalid student visa, DHS is tightening oversight to ensure that foreign students seeking to enter the US have valid student visas. The heightened scrutiny is effective immediately.

With summer months coming, students travelers should be prepared for longer waits at US ports of entry and should also make sure that they have all possible documentation that they may need in order to reenter prior to leaving the US. If anyone has a question about their student status, they should seek a meeting with their DSO to confirm their standing with their school prior to travel since schools report student transfers, failures to enroll, etc. in SEVIS.