Immigration Law Basics for Flight Schools

This article is in response to wide spread of misperceptions in the aviation press and at least one of the alphabet organizations about the impact eliminating all eight flight school exchange visitor programs will have on international flight training.  The impact will barely be noticed, and not be as significant as AOPA implies on their web site.  Nor will it be necessary as AOPA suggests, for the government to create a new visa category because the replacement category already exists.   The M-1 visa category is not new and will be used by those schools that formerly used the J-1 category, in fact, all eight of them already have that authorization.   Flight and maintenance schools are eligible to obtain permission to enroll international students if they follow the usual rules for doing so. 

Basic info:

J-1 is the visa code assigned to exchange visitor programs.  Exchange visitor programs are run out of the Department of State, not the Department of Homeland Security which is responsible for the immigration laws.

M-1 is the visa code assigned to foreign students entering the U.S. for a temporary stay to engage in vocational training, which is what flight training is.  This is a Department of Homeland Security program (DHS) that is generally administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), unlike most other benefits categories that are administered by Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS).

Department of Homeland Security - This massive cabinet level department includes much, but not all, of the government activities related to immigration.  When this department was formed by the Patriot Act it inherited the old INS from the Department of Justice.  It then proceeded to break up the INS into three parts.  These are:

•  CBP - Customs and Border Protection - When you enter the country, even though you still pass through two different inspections (immigration and customs) all of these folks work for the same agency.  In the past this was not the case.
•  ICE - Immigration and Customs Enforcement - you can probably guess that this is a combination of the enforcement operations that used to reside in both the custom service and the immigration service.  These are the folks who arrest immigration violators and prosecute their deportation cases.
•  CIS - Citizenship and Immigration Services - don't let the name fool you, providing service is not a high priority.  These are the folks who write most of the immigration laws, adjudicate petitions for status and benefits, operate biometrics collection centers and field offices, in short this is a very busy unit of DHS.  It should be noted that it is funded entirely by user fees and that is another story for aviators to learn from - just not in this article.

Students Entering the U.S.:

All student foreign nationals entering the United States will have received three separate investigations, two in person and one on paper:

1. A paper review is initiated when the student applies and is accepted to school.  The school will then enter critical information into the ICE computer system known as SEVIS.  If the applicant checks out then the school will issue a form I-20 and with that form (and a few others) the student can apply for a visa. 
2. A first in person interview with a U.S. State Department employee known as a Consular Office.  These folks work at DOS field offices also known as Embassies and Consulates.  The consular officer will review the documents and interview the applicant.  If he or she is satisfied that the case is legitimate then they will approve and issue the visa.
3. After the visa is received the student will travel to the U.S. and ask permission to enter at a port of entry (airport or seaport) or at a land border post.  The second in person interview is with a CBP officer who will review the paperwork, check the computer for any adverse information that ICE or DOS might not have noticed or had access to, and then if that officer is satisfied they will stamp the passport and admission card (known as an I-94 card) and allow the student to proceed to customs inspection. 

There are also TSA regulations to comply with, but that is a topic beyond the intended scope of this article.