Your “immigration status” is the category of legal status that you have been granted by an officer of the Department of Homeland Security. Immigration status defines the activities in which you may engage in while you are in the United States.
If you come to the U.S. in a student immigration status, there are several key rules for maintaining that status that you should follow at all times while you are in the U.S.:
- Always enroll in a full course of study, except during your vacation term or when you are authorized to drop below a full course of study by an international student advisor.
- Do not engage in employment without authorization.
- Report your residential address to the Department of Homeland Security, and update that information with any changes within 10 calendar days of moving.
- Maintain a valid I-20 (F-1) or DS-2019 (J-1), including requesting extensions in a timely manner, throughout your period of study.
- For J-1 Exchange Visitors, maintain valid health insurance throughout your entire exchange visitor program.
- For F-1 students approved for post-completion OPT or STEM Extension, report changes to employment information (for example, beginning or ending a job, changing a job site) within 10 calendar days of the change.
At Portland State, the address you report in myPSU is typically reported directly to your immigration record in SEVIS. This fulfills the address reporting requirement mentioned above.
You should report any changes to your address by updating your record in myPSU within 10 calendar days of the change. If you are on post-completion OPT or the STEM Extension, your address information must be updated in WorldLink, instead.
For more information about maintaining status, please refer to the pages below.