This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh, Fredrikson Immigration Department Chair, is a member.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a reminder on August 18, 2020, to
F-1 nonimmigrant students and their designated school officials (DSOs) that they must update the employer information in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), including unemployment data, because “exceeding unemployment limits can result in a loss of status.” USCIS said that SEVIS “will count each day without employer information toward the total number of unemployment days allowed.”
F-1 nonimmigrants must notify their DSOs within 10 days of any changes in their personal or employment information. In turn, DSOs must update SEVIS with the F-1 nonimmigrant’s information within 21 days. USCIS said that in addition to a possible loss of status, failure to timely update employer information in SEVIS and thus exceeding unemployment limits could result in USCIS’s initiating revocation proceedings for the F-1 nonimmigrant’s employment authorization document or negatively affect the F-1 nonimmigrant’s future benefit requests filed with USCIS.
