ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: An official with the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) told a Congressional committee that the agency foresees successful and timely implementation of a new system for the issuance of foreign student visas.

The new system is known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) and it will greatly enhance our ability to track and monitor foreign students and exchange programme visitors, according to Janis Sposato of the INS Immigration Service Division.

The new programme is being implemented under mandates issued in legislation passed after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, said a press release issued by US Embassy here on Friday.

The US Congress recognized a need to impose a more rigorous system for issuing and monitoring foreign students visas upon the revelation that several of the hijackers responsible for the attacks had entered the country under the old system.

With SEVIS, Sposato said INS will be exerting greater control over institutions authorized to admit foreign students in F and M visa status.”

The institutions first will have to apply for certification for participation in the foreign students programme, and Sposato said that the process is under way.

“SEVIS enables schools and exchange visitor programme sponsors to transmit electronic information and event notifications, via the Internet, to the INS and the Department of State throughout a student’s exchange visitor’s stay in the United States,” according to the testimony Sposato presented to the committee.—APP