Homeland Security Department plans to charge foreign students a $100 fee to pay for a tracking system

The government plans to charge foreign students a $100 fee to pay for a tracking system created to prevent possible terrorists from using student visas to enter the country, a federal official said Wednesday.

The fee goes toward applying or changing their visa status and takes effect on September 1.

Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary at the Homeland Security Department, said the one-time fee should generate more than $30 million annually for the program, known as the Student and Exchange Visa Information Service.

Any foreigner enrolled in a school approved by department must register with the service to enter United States. Some 800,000 students enrolled at 8,000 schools are now in the system.

"Whenever you look at who pays for it, there are no attractive alternatives. Either the taxpayers of America pay for it or you impose a fee on foreign students that come to be educated in the United States," Hutchinson said. "The equities lean toward placing that responsibility on the foreign student."

The charge would come in addition to the $100 visa application fee and a visa issuance fee that is set according to a student's country of origin. The department will collect public comment for a month on the fee proposal.

The agency would like to put the fee in place in the spring, Hutchinson said.

The fee could get some opposition from students who have faced long waits for visas and visa renewals since tougher security measures went into effect after the September 11 attacks.

"We definitely feel that's unfair because you are asking people to pay a fee so they can be tracked. It doesn't sound fair to me," said Qin Qin, chairman of the international students committee of the Graduate Employees Students Organization at Yale.

Qin's group started a national petition in September calling on the federal government to address the visa delays.

The SEVIS requires university international offices to report more than 22 pieces of information on students, including their current address, date and place of birth, country of citizenship, disciplinary action due to crime and conviction, failure to enroll in classes for fall and spring semesters, and failure to maintain status or complete the programme and name change, the report said.