ADVISING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

WHAT ADVISORS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS

The Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) has taken a proactive approach to keeping students in status. Students have been informed of their responsibilities under the Federal regulations as administered by the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). OISS also recognizes the need to reach out to academic advisors as some academic actions could affect immigration status. Some academic actions taken by students need prior approval and must be reported through the SEVIS system. The purpose of the information below is not to make advisors feel that they need to take on immigration advising but to give them an overview of what is happening and encourage them to work in partnership with OISS when necessary. The overall goal is to keep students in status so that they can pursue their degree and remain eligible for future immigration benefits.

The following is a list of key issues:

FULL TIME
Federal regulations require that students remain full time. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stipulates full time for undergraduates as 12 credits per semester. However, DHS gives more flexibility to graduate programs. At MSU full time is defined as:
• Undergraduate: 12 credit hours per semester
• Masters without assistantship: 9 credit hours per semester
• Masters with assistantship: 6 credit hours per semester
• Doctoral without assistantship: 6 credit hours per semester
• Doctoral with assistantship: 3 credit hours per semester
• Doctoral student post comprehensive exams: 1 credit per semester

Doctoral students must be enrolled for at least one credit for Fall and Spring regardless of their defense date. They cannot disenroll if present in the United States and working on their thesis.

Master's students working on a thesis can only be less than full time in their last semester before graduation. Underenrollment outside of the last semester to complete a Master's thesis is not permitted.

All students who are in the United States and on MSU immigration documents must be enrolled and attending classes.

UNDERENROLLMENT
Other than for medical reasons, a student may be underenrolled for one semester per degree not including the final semester exemption.

The following are acceptable reasons for underenrollment:
1. Initial difficulty with reading requirements (used in the first year of study)
2. Initial difficulty with English language (used in the first year of study)
3. Unfamiliar with American teaching methods (used in the first year of study)
4. Improper course placement (appropriate any time during the course of study)
5. In last semester of program (getting the balance of credits for their degree)
6. Medical reasons (referred by a U.S. medical doctor or a board certified psychologist)

Students can only use reasons 1 though 4 once per degree. This does not mean one time for each reason, but one time per degree within the reasons listed in 1 through 4. Reasons 5 and 6 can be used even though reasons 1 through 4 may have been used in the past. In summary, a student who experiences no medical difficulties can be less than full time for a maximum of two times per degree including their last semester. A student who experiences medical difficulties can be less than full time a maximum of 4 times per degree including their last semester.

Students may not underenroll for financial reasons. Students may not be less than full time due to course sequencing. Unfortunately, no exceptions can be made.

Academic advisors would only be authorizing underenrollment one time for a student per degree and then again in the final semester if the student needed it. OISS will also ask the advisor to sign if the student has health problems, however, the student must also get authorization from a medical doctor or board certified psychologist. If medical problems prevent full time enrollment beyond two semesters, the student must leave the US or seek another visa status. See attached underenrollment form.

ON CAMPUS EMPLOYMENT
Students are able to work on campus for 20 hours a week without seeking any special authorization. They are also allowed to work on campus more than 20 hours a week when school is not is session without seeking any special authorization.

CURRICULAR PRACTICAL TRAINING (CPT)
A student seeking off campus work permission must apply for CPT. Advisors should read the attached CPT forms carefully as they will require your signature. Please note that during the school year, a student must maintain a full course of study while on CPT. It is unlikely that a student will be enrolled full time and participate full time in CPT at the same time. However, a student could do a part time CPT during the school year. Part time is defined as 20 hours or less per week. The student could have full time CPT on vacation periods.

This poses a problem for programs that require a full time internship during the course of the semester without requiring that the student remain enrolled full time. OISS would suggest setting up a co-op type course. Students who register for the co-op class would then be considered full time rather than enrolled in one course for 3 credits or a 1-credit internship.

If a program requires a one-year or two semesters of internship, international students should be careful not to exceed 12 months of full time CPT. If they exceed 12 months of full time CPT they lose their optional practical training employment benefit. OISS will advise students to obtain full time CPT for 11.5 months or less.

Finally, some students have mentioned finishing course work and being unable to find a required internship for a few months. If a student finishes course requirements in the spring, but still needs an internship to graduate, they would need to begin that internship by the fall semester and be registered at MSU. The student must register full time for fall (unless underenrollment is authorized) to legally remain in the United States. Departments with this requirement should look into setting up a co-op course that would count as full time.

DUAL EMROLLMENT
Students can be enrolled in more than one institution. We often see undergraduates who are enrolled at MSU and Lansing Community College. Students may dual enroll as long as they remain full time between both schools and are registered for at least half or the majority of their credits at MSU. For example:
Bachelor's student:
6 credits at LCC and 6 credits at MSU is permitted
7 credits at LCC and 5 credits at MSU is NOT permitted

Master's student:
4 credits at Western Michigan and 5 credits at MSU is permitted
5 credits at WMU and 4 credits at MSU are NOT permitted.

Keep in mind that this makes it very difficult to dual enroll with schools that are not in the area especially because a student can only count one virtual course per semester toward their full time status. See “Virtual Courses” below. Also, students could be asked to provide transcripts or proof that the courses were completed in order to remain eligible for future immigration benefits. Students must complete the course at the other institution.

TRANSFER
Transferring out of MSU will require an academic advisor's signature on the transfer out form .

Please note: When a student is having academic difficulty, advisors have told international students to leave MSU and go to Lansing Community College for the year. While this is permissible, the student must be officially transferred by our office and then be issued immigration documents by Lansing Community College. If the student decides to go to LCC without officially transferring out of MSU, the student will be out of status.

RECESSED
Students who are recessed have 15 days to depart the United States or to transfer to another school. Students must complete the transfer process in a timely manner to remain in the United States legally. OISS gets a list of recessed students from the registrar at the close of each semester. Please advise students in this case to seek advice from OISS.

DISMISSED
Students who are dismissed from the university must leave the United States immediately and they will be terminated out of the SEVIS system immediately. OISS gets a list of dismissed students from the registrar at the close of each semester. Please advise students in this case to seek advice from OISS.

WITHDRAWAL
Authorized withdrawal: The student that comes to our office and informs us prior to withdrawal has 15 days to leave the United States. Unauthorized withdrawal: If the student does not notify OISS, the student is immediately out of status.

If academic advisor's have a student who is withdrawing during the semester, please call OISS and let us know and advise the student to come to OISS.

ONLINE/VIRTUAL COURSES
A student can only take one virtual course per semester that counts toward their full time status. For example:
Bachelor's students need to have 12 credits per semester. Only one class of the 12 credits can be virtual. However, students who are registered for more than 12 credits can take another virtual class. The student would be fulfilling 9 brick and mortar credits, 3 virtual credits, anything beyond that can be brick and mortar or virtual.

OTHER ITEMS
• Students who are coming to MSU from overseas for the first time, are only allowed to enter the U.S. 30 days prior to the start date listed on their immigration documents. The start date is usually in mid-August. Students could arrive, at the earliest, by mid-July. If departments want students here sooner than mid-July, the student must be admitted and enrolled for summer session. OISS would give them an I-20 reflecting a summer session start date. In this case, the student must register full time in summer.

• MSU will be reporting registration at quarter term so students need to be registered full time or have authorization to be less than full time by quarter term. If they are not registered or are not authorized to be less than full time, OISS is required to report to the Department of Homeland Security.

• Semester off other than summer: Students may declare a non-traditional semester (Fall/Spring) as their semester off, if it is pre-approved by OISS and reported to SEVIS. For example: If a student is full time in summer and full time in fall, the student could take spring as the declared off semester. This means that summer semester the student would need to be registered full time. Since summer has two sessions, the student would have to be full time in any combination of the two. For example a Master's student w/o assistantship would need 9 credits in the summer and could register for the 9 in one summer term or register for a combination of the 9 between the two semesters.

• To be eligible for optional practical training work permission, students need to be in the United States and maintaining status for 9 months prior to their graduation date. Students who are on a full time study abroad and are earning credit can use this time toward their 9 months. UNFORTUNATELY, graduate students who are doing field research outside the United States will not be able to count this toward full time status. Graduate students who want to take advantage of OPT must keep this in mind when planning their program.

Finally OISS has taken several steps to remain student friendly amid the new federal regulations:

1) OISS has worked with the graduate school to consider 1 credit full time for post-comp doctoral students.

2) OISS has revised its policy on CPT to allow students to tie CPT to any related class authorized by an academic advisor and not have to register for internship credit. This is especially important for students who want to do a CPT over the summer. They may not have to register for a credit over the summer.

3) OISS has worked with the Office of the Registrar to find a way to consider students with a required co-op as full time equivalent. This will allow them to pursue just under 12 months of off campus work/study experience and not have to underenroll.

4) OISS will approve concurrent enrollment as long as the student is getting half or the majority of their credits at MSU. This may ease the financial burden of full time if students can find credit hours that are less expensive and relevant to their study.

This is not an exhaustive list of all regulations, options or benefits available to international students. It is a list of the most frequent benefits. For more information contact OISS 353-1720.