As of January 30, 2003, all sponsoring organizations are required to register students on the Student Exchange Visitors Information System (SEVIS). We have prepared this information sheet to help you understand SEVIS and your responsibilities.

What is SEVIS?

SEVIS is an internet-based database that allows schools and other sponsoring organizations to transmit data regarding students to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Information (see list below) is logged into the database to notify the INS about any significant change or pertinent action taken in the student's academic career in the United States. U.S. embassies and consulates also have access to SEVIS.

The information made available through links at this Web site are provided as a public service to those visiting our site. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CASP program or AMIDEAST, nor do we assume any responsibility for the content provided on these linked sites.

• Republic of Cyprus Home Page
• North Cyprus Home Page
• U.S. State Deptartment. Country Study: Cyprus
• The Cyprus Forum
• The Cyprus Weekly
• Peace-Cyprus
  
• Greek-Turkish friendship-building
• Cypriot Poetry
• Cyprus Fulbright Commission

This site is designed to make it easy for you to access the forms necessary to keep AMIDEAST informed of your progress and to insure that your scholarship benefits remain intact.

Forms for Visas: CASP now prepares form DS-2019, a document generated by the SEVIS Student Tracking System, which was mandated by the U.S. Patriot Act of 2001. When the DS 2019 is issued, you will be officially enrolled in SEVIS. This form entitles you to apply for a J-1 visa. After entering the US and arriving at your university, you must call your AMIDEAST adviser so that we can validate your arrival. If your arrival is not validated, SEVIS will automatically change your status to "no-show." We now issue DS 2019s valid for the duration of your program, thus eliminating the need for annual renewal.

If you travel (e.g. returning home over the winter break) you must send the DS 2019 to AMIDEAST for us to sign under "travel validation." This signature is valid for one year.

Term Course Schedule Form: This form is your CASP preregistration. Just as you preregister for classes each semester for the following semester, you need to complete this form so that your CASP adviser can monitor your academic program. You will receive an e-mail message and a link to this page each semester indicating the date by which your term course schedule is due at AMIDEAST.

The U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and AMIDEAST are pleased to announce this year’s recruitment for the Tomorrow’s Leaders Scholarship Program. The Tomorrow’s Leaders Scholarship Program is a MEPI initiative for capable and highly motivated high school seniors in the Middle East and North Africa who are from underserved backgrounds. The program will provide four-year university scholarships and internship opportunities at select institutions of higher learning in the Middle East to students who have the potential to become leaders. 

Program Summary

Since 1981, the Cyprus-America Scholarship Program (CASP) has brought thousands of Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot students and professionals to the United States for degree programs and specialized training in fields that are vital to that country’s needs, while also seeking to promote improved communication, confidence, and trust between Turkish- and Greek-Cypriots through special bicommunal activities. The U.S. Department of State-funded initiative seeks to advance Cyprus’ economic and social development through higher education.

Main Goals

• Expand the human resource capacity of Cyprus by providing opportunities for U.S. study at the undergraduate, and in the past, graduate levels; short-term professional training; and youth enrichment

• Promote inter-communal understanding through workshops in conflict resolution and specially designed activities that build confidence and trust between individuals from the Turkish- and Greek-Cypriot communities

Highlights

• AMIDEAST has managed the scholarship programs for nearly 2,000 Cypriots enrolled in U.S. undergraduate and graduate programs through the CASP program.

• AMIDEAST has planned individualized short-term training programs at U.S. institutions for several hundred mid-career professionals.

• Hundreds of Cypriot youth have learned valuable lessons designed to improve cooperation and understanding at conflict resolution summer camps in the United States since 1998.

AMIDEAST is one of five organizations that administer a component of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program. This U.S. Department of State-funded scholarship program provides secondary school students in 40 countries spanning throughout the Middle East, Africa, South/Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, the opportunity to live and study in the United States for a full academic year. Libya has recently been added to the country roster for the 2013-2014 academic year, and qualified students will be recruited by AMIDEAST as well.

Bishoy Mikhail from Egypt earned his Masters in Participation, Power and Social Change from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. He traveled to Waw in Southern Sudan for a field visit to elementary schools. “Through my MA, I linked the theories of development studies and social change to the field starting by Sudan … [A]fter finishing my MA [I] will start feeding my organization in Egypt with what I have learned.”

Main Goals

• Promote social justice, community development, and access to higher education

• Support talented individuals from marginalized social groups

We are working to engage women and girls across the region in educational and training opportunities that help them realize their full potential, contribute to the economic security of their families, and advance their societies.

The many scholarship and exchange programs AMIDEAST administers have benefitted an increasing number of bright young women from the region who are returning home with skills and knowledge that will change their lives for the better. In addition, several programs have sought to single out women to help strengthen their role in society as professionals, as educators, and as critical actors in civil society.

Through private sector partnerships, AMIDEAST has been able to provide specialized internship opportunities in the information and computer technology (ICT) and engineering fields to qualified professionals.

These opportunities provide on-the-job exposure to state-of-the-art techniques in these fields and access to mentors likely to have a critical impact on participants' career development.

Through a handful of small specialized scholarship programs and scholarship search funds, AMIDEAST is working to open new doors for bright, non-elite youth to opportunities for higher education in the United States or at American-style universities in the region.