Adviser reports that students have requested OPT and it has been approved, but their SEVIS records are not being updated. When USCIS does not provide this information to SEVIS, the records auto complete after 180 days. To correct this problem, advisers must submit a data fix which requires writing a letter and sending a copy of a student's EAD card. Institution does not have the staff to take on the work of the USCIS Claims department. The worst part is not knowing which students are affected--it’s hit or miss. Institution has over 2,000 international students and cannot manually track each student who applies for OPT. Additionally, adviser doesn't always receive copies of students' EAD cards and in such cases cannot request correction.
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Adviser reports a lot of problems with SEVIS' new procedure regarding OPT. Adviser’s understanding is that the USCIS is supposed to update SEVIS when an OPT application has been approved. This almost never happens. SEVIS expects the DSOs to catch this problem and request that the status be corrected. If advisers do not catch it in time, SEVIS will change the record to "completed" status. This should not be a DSO responsibility. OPT can be issued directly to the student, and in many cases the DSO has no way to determine if it has been issued or not. Adviser urges NAFSA to advocate to get this responsibility returned to the USCIS and SEVIS. That is where the problem lies, and they should be the ones to find a solution. Adviser has come across a few cases where students have been negatively impacted by the change. One student had his EAD stolen, and needs to file for a replacement, but he cannot do so until his SEVIS record is corrected. Another student needs to apply for the OPT extension. His OPT card expires on 09/31/2008. Adviser submitted a helpdesk request on Aug 19, and faxed the required documents on Aug 20. To date his record is still in completed status. Adviser submitted a separate request under IssueNet’s Get Liaison Help.
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Adviser reports that SEVIS did a routine maintenance of the system on July 30th, 2008 and this had an impact on some files, especially OPT files that were "COMPLETED" and OPT "CANCELLED", although those students had been approved and are actually working. Adviser so far has 8 students affected by this glitch. SEVIS will fix it but had the adviser not noticed, the students would be in limbo.
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Adviser reports that service center is not updating SEVIS with regard to students that have been approved for OPT. SEVIS still has at least 8 students in Requested when they have received their card. Adviser is not able to update their employment record.
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| Adviser reports that F-1 student applied for OPT, received EAD and SEVIS cancelled OPT in SEVIS because the record was in "requested" status for more than 180 days. Institution has 15 records in SEVIS that are facing cancellation for the same reason. Of those 15, 3 have not yet received the EAD and adviser assumes are pending with USCIS. The other 12 have the EAD and are working on OPT even though SEVIS still indicates requested. Adviser is not sure of the consequences of an OPT cancellation on a student who has already received the EAD. The purpose of this cancellation function in SEVIS is good and understandable; however, it should not have been implemented until the case status could be reliably updated in SEVIS by USCIS. Besides the worry and possible consequences to the student, school officials are being asked to do the legwork needed to cover for this lack of timely updates from USCIS. Adviser thinks this cancellation function should be either be removed or the updates from USCIS be made in a timely matter. |
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| Adviser reports issue of CLAIMS (USICS Service Centers) data not updating SEVIS continues to cause undue work for DSOs and potential problems for students. Adviser’s office alone has submitted over 80 correction requests in 2008 to have OPT cases changed in SEVIS from Request or Pending to Approved. |
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| Adviser reports an exchange visitor who was listed as "no show." His record was corrected but not his dependents'. Adviser has sent two subsequent emails to the SEVIS Help Desk but no response was forthcoming. His wife is still listed in "no show" status while his record is valid. |
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Adviser reports submitting correction requests online for students who have OPT approved but it is still showing as REQUESTED in SEVIS. These students' OPT will eventually be canceled if adviser does not submit the correction request. Recently they were approved, usually within one week. In the remarks of the correction adviser would write "OPT was approved." Adviser recently submitted a large batch of corrections because there are a large number of students with incorrect OPT status in SEVIS. On 09/09/2008 adviser received a "Request for Information" from the SEVIS Help Desk for 10 corrections. They are requiring that adviser fax a copy of the I-797 approval or the EAD card to the SEVIS Help Desk. These students are all over the U.S. and the amount of time required to gather all of this information, and then to send it to the SEVIS Help Desk, is a waste of resources, especially at this time of year. They should have access to this information to within USCIS. Following is a copy of one of the "Request for information" emails. These corrections will be cancelled within 4 business days if adviser does not supply the information. Adviser has about 20 additional corrections to request but is waiting for a resolution to this large issue before submitting them.
“ *** DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS E-MAIL ***
Regarding the following correction request:
This notice is to inform you that SEVP has begun processing your correction request. However, additional information must be submitted in order to complete this request.
Please fax a copy of the student's I-797 Notice of Action with OPT approval and/or a copy of the student's EAD card to 202-414-8299. Please make sure to reference correction request on all documents faxed.
Note: Failure to respond or comply with an RFI within four business days may result in a denial. |
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Adviser’s institution uses Oracle's PeopleSoft (PASS) to batch to SEVIS. Both the university IT department and Oracle are very concerned because there's very little detailed information about SEVIS II available and it seems that there may not be adequate time for Oracle (and other vendors) to do necessary development and testing. Answers to as many of the following questions as possible would be greatly appreciated.
1). At what point in the SEVIS II timeline will schools and vendors have access to the detailed specifications for batch?
2). At what point in the SEVIS II timeline will schools and vendors have access to a test environment?
3). Are there plans to conduct web-casts or conference calls targeted at batch schools and our vendors? If not, can NAFSA push for this?
4). Will the basic framework for sending and retrieving our batch data via XML file exchanges remain the same? (Our IT department has heard rumors of changing over to Web Services – this would be huge!)
5). What new or revised SEVIS batch events will SEVIS II include?
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| Adviser reports that scholar traveled abroad while under application for change of status from J2 to J1. Instead of a new DS-2019, sholar was issued a duplicate original DS-2019 with the same SEVIS ID#. Scholar obtained a J1 visa with this DS-2019 and re-entered on 10/11/07. Both DS-2019 and I-94 were properly processed by Port-of-Entry Officer. Scholar has been maintaining J1 status ever since. On 02/26/2008, her un-canceled change of status application was denied due to travel and SEVIS record became inactive. ARO faxed SEVIS Help Desk Ticket letter on 8/13/2008 to request bringing SEVIS record back to "active" status and it has been pending for six weeks. ARO called SEVIS Help Desk several times but was told no sure date to process the request. Academic Department is renewing contract with the scholar to extend research project. This issue needs to be solved immediately. It would be greatly appreciated if this issue can be brought to SEVIS Help Desk for expedite processing. |
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| Adviser reports that Hurricane Ike has affected southeast Texas tremendously. Adviser’s institution was closed for 2 weeks due to the storm damage. Due to the storm damage, has SEVP issued temporary procedures for completing SEVIS requests (OPT extensions, SEVIS Registration, etc)? |
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| Does NAFSA anticipate any problems for students or exchange visitors who pay the I-901 fee before it increases but have visa appointments after the increase? |
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| Adviser’s university has a number of students who are post-bac. The issue of what to do with their SEVIS records arises when they decide to no longer enroll. Most of these students do not complete the 2nd bachelors degree so in these cases do you complete or terminate the record? |
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| Adviser reports SEVIS is running very slow, particularly the alert lists. This problem has been occurring since at least late June / early July. Besides brief periods of improvement the problem has continued and is seriously affecting productivity and ability to meet reporting requirements in timely manner. |
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| Adviser has completed the I-17 and site visit for a new campus. The I-17 now states (as opposed to those from 2003) the degree levels offered, but not specific degrees. The campus offers masters degrees but one of the degrees was not listed on the State Governing Board certificate. When the campus is approved, probably in December, can F-1 students be accepted into the masters program and be issued an I-20 that is not listed on the State certificate? The program not listed was previously held on an off-campus site, but is now held at the campus location. |
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| Adviser reports OPT cap gap extension data fix requested 8/26/2008. Student's OPT ended 8/31/08. Data fix has not been completed and student is waiting and unable to work. No information was available when adviser called SEVIS. |
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| Adviser reports that while she has had few problems with SEVIS for Js, SEVIS for Fs has been increasingly slow. Adviser has called the help desk on several occasions over the past month. They have been sympathetic but they do not know what the problem is. They have acknowledged that the adviser is not the only one to reports this. It is very difficult to comply with regulatory time frames when a single record may take ten minutes (or more) to access and update. |
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| Adviser reports that available campus jobs are diminishing because most all jobs now require that students be eligible for Federal Work Study (FWS). More and more F-1 students simply don't have the option of on-campus employment. Sometimes adviser suggests they try to get the EAD for economic need, but the parameters for this don't include the fact that campus jobs aren't available. Adviser think the regs must be adjusted to account for the dwindling number of campus jobs that international students can access. Fewer American students qualify for FWS, which only increases the demand for the few non-FWS jobs left. |
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Adviser submits question regarding practical training:
1. If a student applies for OPT in December but does not receive approval (case pending) by the time school starts (January 15) can the student work on campus during the pending time (Jan - March)? Student advised to apply in October but may not receive work/volunteer opportunity by Dec. Can the student work off campus as a volunteer during the pending state on an interim EAD card?
2. Where in the regulations does it say that enrollment in classes during part-time pre-completion OPT is mandatory? The student does not want to have to pay for tuition for part time classes or 9 credits graduate level credits while on part time OPT.
3. The student wants to do part time OPT but wants also to work on campus. Would the student be registered in SEVIS like normal but not say enrolled? And can she be paid up to 20 hours part time on-campus employment?
4. If 5 months pre-completion OPT ends at the end of the academic semester May 15, does the student still get vacation May - August?
5. Can the student get CPT twice? The MFA was granted allowance once for an internship over the summer as part of the furniture curriculum but internships are not advertised to the public in print materials, online catalogs, or accreditation materials. Internships are allowed case by case per review by the program director and mentor professor. When will the trigger enact for USCIS to deny the post-completion 6 months to finish her OPT? |
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| Adviser reports calling SEVIS Help Desk to request a flag removal. Adviser was told by the Help Desk Asst that SEVIS recently decided to not take requests for flag removals for Terminations due to Auth Early Withdrawal or Change of Status Approval unless the student is having trouble at Port of Entry. This is due to the large number of flag removal requests they are getting. According to the asst, Terminations for these two reasons do not have negative flags. Adviser is concerned for how this will impact traveling students, and also how advisers will document that students have "had trouble" at POE so that flags will be removed. |
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| Adviser reports that new OPT rules are over-regulated and confusing to students who must keep track and report days of unemployment, hours per week, etc. A student who has been working 15-18 hrs per week on assignment (which will not count) has a job offer pending. Student is in final interviews, but the job offer may not come until a week after the 90 days of unemployment. Adviser believes that this has become a huge burden to schools with F-1 programs both in managing all the additional reporting, staff time in trying to explain all the ins and outs of this to students, employers, their attorneys, their academic departments, etc. |
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| DSO reports that while authorizing part-time CPT for an F-1 (with a part-time pre-OPT application pending) SEVIS would not let DSO add the CPT employment. SEVIS gave an error message that says "OPT employment segments cannot overlap. The start date cannot be prior to the end date of any previous OPT employment." Adviser was not recommending OPT, but was authorizing PT CPT. Since the student was going to withdraw the still pending OPT application, adviser cancelled the OPT recommendation in SEVIS and sent an email to the SC schools email requesting that the OPT application be withdrawn. Once adviser had cancelled the OPT recommendation in SEVIS, she was able to authorize the CPT for the student, but at no time was adviser attempting to recommend OPT that overlapped, so the error message made no sense. Advisers should be able to authorize CPT that overlaps with a pre-completion OPT recommendation. |
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| Student reports she applied for my H1B visa at the US Embassy in Cairo. The case was put under administrative processing, and it has been pending for more than one month now, and the consular officer said that it will take only 10 days. The student works as the lead developer in an educational software company, and many of the important projects are currently suspended because of the visa delay. Besides not being able to continue the work in the US, that could cause the company major losses. In addition, student reports her song is unable to complete necessary medical treatment and his health condition in great risk. Is there any way to know the kind of check that is being done for the application or know how long it will take? |
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