The Immigration and Naturalization Service’s foreign-student tracking system is tightening its regulations.

Beginning Jan. 30, international students and visiting scholars at Ohio State won’t be cut any slack when it comes to maintaining legal status in the United States and attending the classes in which they are enrolled.

John Greisberger, director of the Office of International Education, said the consequences are severe, and international students need to know this.

“It’s a new ball game and the stakes are higher,” he said.

The INS electronically monitors non-immigrant students at all colleges and universities in the United States.

Under the new system, the Office of International Education will be required to electronically report each quarter the number of international students and visiting scholars enrolled full-time. If students are not enrolled full-time, they may be deported from the country.

“Let’s just say that in the past when INS found out that students were enrolled under full-time, they asked them to leave the country, and if they didn’t, they were deported,” Greisberger said.

An OSU student must carry 12 credit hours to be considered as full-time; anything under that is half-time.

Greisberger said exceptions are made for medical reasons, which have to be noted by a medical doctor; or valid academic reasons which include language barriers or difficulty with initial adjustments to the university.

Initial adjustment only refers to the first few quarters, though, and after that, regardless of their situation, students have to take a full load of classes.

“I’ve been at the university for 16 years, and it’s been 15 years since INS asked our office to report on international students and scholars,” Greisberger said.

Mitesh Mehta, a graduate international student from India, said the new regulation is needed but should be loosened up.

“They should consider on a case-by-case basis, because sometimes students have financial situations, and they just can’t go to school full-time,” he said.

Non-immigrants make up about 2 percent of all foreign people in the United States and are living in the countries for temporary reasons with plans to return to their native country after they accomplish their objectives.

There are 20 non-immigrant visa categories, but SEVIS only regulates F and J visa holders.

F visa holders can be either international students or visiting scholars, and J visa holders are usually visiting scholars. Most international students who come to study in the United States come on F visas; J visa students have full scholarships from either their home country’s government or the U.S. government.

Greisberger said the difference between international students and visiting scholars is international students are working toward a degree and visiting scholars already have a doctorate but come to universities to do collaborative research with other professors.

“My biggest worry is that students will not realize the severity of not maintaining their legal status,” Greisberger said.

OSU has more than 5,000 international students and visiting scholars, and Greisberger said that’s a lot of students to keep track of.

“We’ve received funding from academic affairs to hire additional staff members, new computer equipment and software packages for the new system,” Greisberger said.

Greisberger said not only OSU has had to invest money for the new program; every other college and university in the country will be investing dollars as well.

Arjan Charravarti, a second-year international student from India, said it is difficult for him to comment on the tracking system.

“As a guest to this country, I have to obey the laws of the country,” he said.