SEVIS Fee
The graduate education community has been anxiously monitoring the situation of international students since the events of 9/11. The New York Times recently reported, in a front-page article, on the decline in international applicants to U.S. doctoral, masters, and professional school programs and noted that for the first time in nearly 30 years the numbers of international students studying in this country declined. There are many reasons for this, including increased competition from excellent universities and graduate programs in other parts of the world. But it is also true that stricter visa controls and spot security checks on incoming prospective students and already enrolled graduate students have produced a distinct chill in the historic receptivity of the U.S. to international graduate and professional students.
The Graduate School is committed to admitting and enrolling the best and the brightest, most intellectually capable and promising graduate students from around the world. It is clear to all of us in the Graduate School that the overall educational experience here, not only in the Graduate School but also in the University as a whole, is immensely enriched, academically, socially, and culturally, by the presence of international students. As we enter the new year, and a new admissions season, it is particularly important to restate in the strongest terms that we encourage outstanding international students who seek excellent graduate programs to continue to apply to Princeton, and to accept our offers of admission and support.
Such commitments need to be expressed in concrete terms. In order to defray the costs of the SEVIS reporting system for international students, the federal government is now charging a fee of $100, in addition to the standard visa application fee, to all students who are approved to come to the U.S. for study. The Graduate School wants to remove this additional $100 SEVIS fee as a potential barrier to students’ deciding to come to Princeton, and so has decided to reimburse this fee to all new graduate degree candidates who accept Princeton’s offer of admission and enroll in a degree program beginning with the Fall of 2005. Therefore, if you are admitted to Princeton, your admission offer will say, "Should you decide to come to Princeton, the Graduate School will reimburse the SEVIS fee that you are required to pay in order to get a visa, payable in full at the end of September after you register." Should your admission offer NOT include this language, even though you are required to pay the SEVIS fee, please forward your original SEVIS payment coupon to Dean Mawhinney's Office, 104 Clio Hall so that reimbursement can be processed on your behalf.