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DSOs: A Guide to SEVP Guidance


September 22, 2016

Guidance is the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP)’s interpretation of federal laws and regulations that guide SEVP adjudicators in their decision-making. There are three different types of SEVP guidance:

  • Draft: clarifies or revises SEVP’s policies and does not establish standards or requirements for adjudicators. Draft guidance is not official policy and is intended to ensure public understanding of how SEVP adjudicators apply decisions.
  • Interim final: is official SEVP policy that establishes standards or requirements that SEVP adjudicators use to make decisions. SEVP will typically issue interim final guidance on issues that require immediate clarification, revision or are uncontroversial to seek public comment to help inform the final guidance.
  • Final: is official SEVP policy that establishes standards and requirements for SEVP adjudicators. It is intended to clarify laws or regulations related to SEVP adjudications and does not replace or supersede those laws or regulations.

Periodically, SEVP requests public comment on draft and interim final guidance. Stakeholders can download draft and interim final guidance currently open for public comment on the Study in the States SEVP Guidance for Comment page.

SEVP currently invites public comment on its interim final SEVP Policy Guidance S13: Form I-20 — Student and Dependent Personal Information Fields in SEVIS. To comment, email feedback to SEVPFeedback@ice.dhs.gov, using the title of the guidance in the subject line. The comment period closes on Oct. 14, 2016.

Please note that all final guidance and interim final guidance not open for public comment are located in the Policy Guidance tab in the Operating Instructions section of ICE.gov/SEVP.

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