The Department of Homeland Security plans a tax on internatinal students: The Department of Homeland Security is weeks away from finalising a rule governing how a $100 security fee will be collected. But universities are mounting a last-minute lobbying effort to change the proposed system, which would require international students to pay the fee with a credit card or a cheque in US dollars. The universities are concerned that the proposed system would create another barrier for students wanting to study in the US. Tightened visa rules have been blamed for a 32 per cent decline in graduate student applications to US universities this year. The fee would have to be paid before the student entered the US. The students would then receive a paper receipt, which they would show to a visa interviewer. The fees would cover the cost of registering with Sevis, a computer database used by Homeland Security to track international students. The fee is required because the US Congress mandated that the Sevis programme be self-funded.