(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas - About 60 University of Texas international students and scholars could face penalties as serious as deportation if the international office cannot find them within the next 10 days.

On Aug. 1, the nationwide deadline to enroll international students in a federal tracking system will lapse, and the students and scholars will lose their legal status.

"We've sent e-mails, we've called, and now we are going to send physical letters," said Deane Willis, director of International Student and Scholar Services. "We are doing things on an individual basis, trying to reach every student."

Willis said the students and scholars were left out of the system when the university lost contact with them.

Colleges and universities are required to enter data about their continuing students into the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, by Aug. 1, a deadline set by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The system, created by the USA PATRIOT Act following the Sept. 11 attacks, provides tracking and monitoring of non-immigrant students and exchange scholars.

The university enrolled most of the foreign students into SEVIS automatically. But students whose personal files in the International Office are incomplete, such as those that lack a foreign address, need to contact the office so that they can be put in the system.