“They’re a bit overwhelmed, and it can take time to get through to the SEVIS help desk, but there they’re trying very hard,” she says.

Still, the HIO’s work this summer involves nearly as much troubleshooting as data entry.

“Figuring out how to use the system” consumes after-hours time, Ladd says.

Harvard received approval to use SEVIS on Jan. 30, but as a result of its academic calendar the University does not have to enter all of its international students into the database until Aug. 1, the final deadline for SEVIS entry.

But according to Ladd, the University saw the database operate successfully for the first time as a group of foreign scholars entered the country without major problems under the SEVIS system.

“The Mason Scholars at the Kennedy School were reported to SEVIS in July,” she says. “The system is working.”

Far From Fancy Free

But though Ladd says that the HIO will be ready to meet the SEVIS deadline, it will not meet August carefree.

A combination of the office’s usual summer travails and new national-security legislation looming on the horizon leaves the HIO with a formidable amount of work.

Beginning Aug. 1, consular offices will be required to hold face-to-face interviews with all visa applicants, student or otherwise—an added step that threatens to bog down an already backlogged process, Ladd says.

And late this past spring, Tom Ridge ’67, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said that the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indication Technology System (U.S. VISIT) will be effective by the end of the year, replacing NSEERS, an older, controversial system for registering men from certain countries.

NSEERS applies to men from countries such as Sudan and Iraq, considered state sponsors of terrorism, as well as to other immigrants who the government believes require extra scrutiny.

U.S. VISIT will combine information gleaned from SEVIS with fingerprints, eye scans, and other sources of biometric data, Ridge said.

Ladd said she did not yet know what fresh responsibilities the new program would bring to her office.

Summer has always been the HIO’s most hectic season, Ladd says, as preparations for the fall term combine with a host of setbacks in students’ summer plans.