1. Questions About Your Health Insurance? Walk In Hours This Week are Thursday, May 1
2. Last International Coffee Hour for This Academic Year With Special Recognition Friday, May 2
3. Early Registration for Fall 2008 Ends May 9
4. Optional Practical Training Limited to Three Months? Not True!
5. Practical Training Update from the ISSS
6. Attention: Graduate Assistants and Teaching Assistants on the State Payroll and Other Students Who Work On-Campus<
7. U.S. Immigration Requirements If You are Leaving Binghamton Permanently
8. Planning to Travel Outside the United States With a Child?

1. Questions About Your Health Insurance? Walk In Hours This Week are Thursday, May 1

This week, due to a schedule change, Diane Sliwinski, International Health Insurance Coordinator, will be holding her walk-in hours on Thursday, May 1 from 1:30pm to 2:30pm rather than Wednesday, April 30.

2. Last International Coffee Hour for This Academic Year With Special Recognition Friday, May 2

Good company! Free food! Hot and cold beverages! Celebrate May and the approaching end of the Spring semester by coming to this month's International Coffee Hour on Friday, May 2 from 3:30-5pm in the University Union Room 133.  Please note the change in room location. This month's sponsor is the Division of Student Affairs.

As a special feature of this month’s Coffee Hour, we will be honoring the leadership of the international student cultural associations.  Please come out to support these associations:
Binghamton University Japanese Association
Binghamton University Korean Undergraduate Student Association
Binghamton University Turkish Student Association
Chinese Student and Scholar Association
European Student Association
Graduate African Student Organization
Indian Graduate Student Organization
Korean Graduate Student Association
Taiwan Student Association
Turkish Cultural Association

We look forward to seeing you on Friday, May 2.

3. Early Registration for Fall 2008 Ends May 9

Early registration for all current students for Fall 2008 continues from now through Friday, May 9.  The system is available from 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. (22 hrs. per day) seven days a week.  Students’ time tickets (registration times) may be obtained from BU Brain, the student portal at http://bubrain.binghamton.edu You will need your BU user ID and pods password to sign-in.

Students are assigned times for early registration according to their total cumulative credits, including in-progress courses.  Students can check their total cumulative credits by going to the BUSI web center http://busi.binghamton.edu and clicking on “View Grades and Credits.” 

Before signing in to BU Brain, please read this important message that explains some of the new features you will encounter when advance registering: http://banner.binghamton.edu/students/

4. Optional Practical Training Limited to Three Months?  Not True!

For the past two weeks, staff in the Office of International Student and Scholar Services have been asked many times if post-completion Optional Practical Training is now limited to just three months.  Since the new regulations for OPT that were published on April 8, 2008 did not change the 12-month period of initial OPT, ISSS staff began to wonder how such a false rumor got started.   They soon realized that the new rule that limits unemployment while on the initial period of OPT to no more than 90 days total was being wrongly interpreted to mean that OPT itself will only last for three months.  In fact, F-1 visa holders on their initial period of OPT may use the entire amount of time authorized on their Employment Authorization Card as long as they are employed, or if unemployed, as long as the total number of unemployed days does not exceed 90.

5. Practical Training Update from the ISSS

The ISSS is working very hard to update all of its printed and web materials for interim optional practical training, and add new printed and web materials for those eligible for the 17 month STEM Extension.  We will send out an announcement on this listserv once all is ready.

Here is a summary of some of the changes that affect the 12 month initial period of OPT:

1. NEW! Filing Deadline I at USCIS!

Your OPT application must be received by the USCIS Processing Center within 30 days of the date that Binghamton’s office of International Student and Scholar Services recommends your OPT.  The date can be easily determined by examining the date printed at item 10, page 1 of your new OPT I-20.  If the USCIS Processing Center determines that your I-20 is “too old,” the OPT application may be denied.  If this is a concern, you may request a newer OPT I-20 by contacting the ISSS

2. NEW!  Filing Deadline II at USCIS!

The deadline for submitting your Post-Completion OPT application to the USCIS Processing Center has been extended so that it is up to 60 days after your degree completion date as indicated on item 5, page 1 of your OPT I-20 (as long as you do not exceed the 30 day limit from the date ISSS recommends your OPT; see Item 1 above).  Remember that it takes up to 90 days for the USCIS to process your application form, delaying filing your application until the deadline means that it will be as much as 90 days from the date USCIS receives your application before you will have your Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and can start work.

3. NEW!  Days of Unemployment Must Be Counted!

There is now a limit to the number of days you can be on post-completion OPT, unemployed, and still maintain valid F-1 status. Once post-completion OPT is approved, a student cannot exceed a total of 90 days of unemployment beginning with the start date on the EAD card.  This includes any travel periods outside the United States while unemployed. The only exception is that periods of up to ten days between the end of one job and the beginning of the next job will not be included in the calculation for time spent unemployed.

4. NEW!  Reporting Requirements!

You are required to report any change to your current name or address to Binghamton University’s Office of International Student and Scholar Services within ten days of the change.

You are required to report any changes in employment information (including periods of unemployment) to Binghamton University’s Office of International Student and Scholar Services within ten days of the change

5.    NEW!   Periods of Pre-Completion and Post-Completion Optional Practical Training cannot be combined!
Under the new regulations, it is no longer possible to apply for OPT to start prior to your degree completion date and then continue with that employment after your program end date.  Instead, two separate OPT applications may need to be filed, one for pre-completion and one for post-completion.  The ISSS is requesting clarification on this rule.  Watch for further updates in ISSS-BU News.

The ISSS will be establishing an on-line procedure for students to report the information required in items 3 and 4 and will announce the procedure once it is in place.

Students who will be graduating in Summer 2008 should consider beginning the application process now, so that they will receive their work authorization cards in a timely manner. Traditionally, the ISSS has advised students to allow 12 weeks for application processing. You are urged to consider these dates when submitting your paperwork. Applications are available in the ISSS.

Once you receive your EAD card, please bring it to the ISSS so that a copy can be made for your file. This will prove very useful to you in case the card is ever lost or misplaced. Remember: you cannot begin employment any earlier than the starting date on the EAD card.

6. Attention: Graduate Assistants and Teaching Assistants on the State Payroll and Other Students Who Work On-Campus

Any graduate assistants or teaching assistants who are completing their studies this semester are reminded that it is critical that they provide the State Payroll Office (4th floor Couper Administration Building) or the Research Foundation Payroll Office (ITC Building) with a permanent home address for the remainder of 2008 to insure that all W-2 forms for income received in 2008 can be mailed to the correct address next January 2009.

In addition, any hourly student workers on the State Payroll or other campus payrolls (such as Sodexho Dining Services) who are completing their studies this semester are also reminded to provide the Payroll Office (4th floor Couper Administration Building), if you are on the New York State payroll, or the payroll office of any other campus employer with an address for the remainder of 2008, to insure that all W-2 forms for income received in 2008 can be mailed to the correct address next January.

7. U.S. Immigration Requirements If You are Leaving Binghamton Permanently

ISSS staff are often asked what the immigration requirements are if a student will no longer be continuing at Binghamton, either because the student is returning to his/her home country, or is beginning Practical Training or Academic Training, or because the student is going to begin study at a new school.

Regardless of your plans, retain your old I-20s (or DS-2019s)! These forms represent your immigration history in the U.S. and should be kept in a safe place as you would any important document. In addition, you must complete a departure/change of address form, available on the ISSS website at http://isss.binghamton.edu/forms/depForm.html

The immigration regulatory process for transferring your F-1 status from Binghamton to a new U.S. school requires you to complete a SEVIS Release Form with the ISSS so that your federal SEVIS record can be transferred to your new school. The SEVIS Release Form may be obtained in the ISSS or downloaded at: http://isss.binghamton.edu/forms/SEVISRelse.pdf

Also, follow your new school's instructions for obtaining your I-20, and for reporting to that school in a timely fashion.

Students who will be ending their studies in May but have no plans to apply for practical training (F-1), academic training (J-1) or continue at a new school or in a new field or level of study, or seek a change of non-immigrant status must depart the United States within sixty days of completion of their academic program if they are in F-1 status, or within thirty days if they are in J-1 status.

8. Planning to Travel Outside the United States With a Child?

If you have a child (or children) with you in the United States, and plan to travel abroad with them this Spring or Summer, we recommend that you read an important article on the ISSS web site about travel with children.  The article specifically addresses issues when only one parent is traveling with the children.  Visit: http://isss.binghamton.edu/travel/parntchild.html

ISSS-BU is a listserv owned and managed by the Office of International Student and Scholar Services, Division of Student Affairs, at the State University of New York at Binghamton. It is the publisher of ISSS-BU News . Permission is granted to freely distribute the information posted to this list as long as its contents remain unchanged.