Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced changes to student’s access to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). Instead of allowing students access to their portal accounts indefinitely, in the future student’s access will be limited after their optional practical training (OPT) authorization ends. The government will soon only allow access to the SEVP Portal for up to six months after the students OPT ends. Therefore, It is important for students to make a copy of their portal record.
Two system upgrades will initiate this change. The first change, the SEVP Portal Release 1.10, will limit the students’ access to six months after their OPT End Date.
The second system upgrade will be SEVP Portal Release 1.11, which will add an additional email for all students that will be sent when a student’s OPT ends to inform them their portal access closes in six months. Students will continue to receive emails from the SEVP Portal 30 days in advance of their portal access closing and also on the day their access ends.