SEVIS: How the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System Works

SEVIS – the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System – is the federal database U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) uses to track every F-1, M-1, and J-1 nonimmigrant from initial admission through program completion or departure. For a sponsored researcher, this is different from the visa itself: the visa is a travel document issued by a consulate, and campus enforcement (covered separately below) is a distinct enforcement layer. SEVIS is the ongoing, real-time record-keeping system that a sponsoring institution’s own staff – not the researcher – is legally required to maintain for as long as that person’s status continues. This guide is written for research administrators and sponsored-programs staff who need to understand what SEVIS actually is and does, distinct from CASRAI’s J-1 exchange visitor visa guide (which covers J-1 category rules and duration limits) and its ICE campus enforcement guide (which covers what happens when immigration enforcement touches a campus). Neither of those pages is a substitute for understanding the system itself, and this one does not replace either – the three are meant to be read together.

What SEVIS actually tracks

SEVIS is a web-based system, administered by SEVP within ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations directorate, that holds a continuously updated record for every F, M, and J nonimmigrant: biographic data, program and sponsor information, enrollment or exchange-visitor status, address, employment authorization (including Curricular Practical Training and Optional Practical Training for F-1 students), academic or program progress, and a full history of reportable events. It is not a visa-issuance system – the Department of State issues visas separately – and it is not an enforcement-operations system in the sense of the campus actions covered in CASRAI’s ICE campus enforcement guide. It is the record of truth that both of those other processes check against: a consular officer checks a SEVIS-generated Form I-20 or DS-2019 before issuing a visa, and a SEVIS record’s status (active, terminated, or completed) is one of the things that determines whether a person is currently in valid status.

Who has to report to SEVIS – and it is not the researcher

The reporting obligation sits with the institution, not the individual researcher, through two parallel but separate official roles:

• For F-1 (and M-1) students – including graduate researchers and F-1 postdocs on Optional Practical Training or the STEM OPT extension – the institution’s Designated School Official (DSO) maintains the SEVIS record, under the school-certification framework at 8 CFR 214.3. Only an SEVP-certified school can enroll F-1 students at all, and only its DSOs can create and update SEVIS records for them.
• For J-1 exchange visitors – including Research Scholars and Professors, the categories that cover most J-1 postdocs and visiting researchers – the institution’s Responsible Officer (RO) or Alternate Responsible Officer (ARO) performs the equivalent function under the Department of State’s program-sponsor regulations at 22 CFR 62.11, issuing and maintaining the SEVIS record behind each Form DS-2019.

In practice, a research administration or international-scholar office almost never talks to SEVIS directly on behalf of a PI or lab; it talks to its own DSO or RO/ARO staff, who are the only people with SEVIS system access and legal signing authority for the records in their care. A grants or sponsored-programs office’s practical role is making sure the DSO/RO office actually knows about a status-dependent hire or appointment in time to act – not performing the SEVIS update itself.

Reportable events and how fast they have to happen

SEVIS is not a set-it-and-forget-it record. Federal regulation requires specific updates within specific windows once a reportable event occurs. The timeframes that come up most often for research personnel:

• Commencing a full course of study or program. A DSO must report a student’s registration/commencement in SEVIS within 21 days of the start of the term, per 8 CFR 214.3(g).
• Address changes. An F-1 student must notify the DSO of a new address within 10 days of moving; the DSO then has 21 days to update SEVIS. J-1 exchange visitors have an equivalent RO/ARO-mediated address-reporting obligation under the exchange-visitor program regulations.
• Enrollment verification each term. Continued full-time enrollment is confirmed in SEVIS on a rolling basis, generally measured from the institution’s registration or drop/add deadline for that term, not from the first day of classes.
• Program extensions, reduced course load, employment authorization (CPT/OPT), and program completion or early withdrawal each carry their own SEVIS-reporting obligation, all routed through the DSO (F-1/M-1) or RO/ARO (J-1) rather than through the researcher or a hiring department.

These deadlines run against the institution’s own DSO/RO office, which is why understaffing or a slow internal notification path from HR, payroll, or a PI’s lab to the international-scholar office is a real institutional compliance risk, independent of whether the researcher personally did anything wrong.

The I-901 SEVIS fee

Separate from any visa application fee, most F, M, and J nonimmigrants must pay the I-901 SEVIS fee before a consular interview or, for a change of status filed inside the U.S., before that application is adjudicated – the fee funds SEVP’s operation of SEVIS itself. As of this writing the fee is $350 for F-1/M-1 students and $220 for J-1 exchange visitors, paid directly by the individual (not the institution) through the federal FMJfee.com portal, and is required again if a person’s prior SEVIS record was terminated and a new one must be created. Because ICE periodically adjusts this fee, confirm the current amount directly at ICE’s I-901 fee page before advising a specific researcher.

SEVP certification: why the institution’s own status is what makes any of this possible

An institution cannot issue an F-1 Form I-20 at all unless it is itself SEVP-certified, and SEVP-certified schools must apply for recertification roughly every two years under 8 CFR 214.3 to retain that status. Recertification (or an out-of-cycle compliance review) can end in remedial action or, in more serious cases, a withdrawal proceeding against the school’s certification. J-1 program sponsorship works on a parallel track under the Department of State’s separate 22 CFR Part 62 designation process rather than SEVP certification, but the practical stakes are the same: if the institution’s own certification or designation lapses or is revoked, it stops being able to sponsor new F-1 or J-1 researchers, and existing SEVIS records tied to that certification can be affected.

This is not a hypothetical risk. In May 2025, DHS moved to revoke Harvard University’s SEVP certification outright, which would have prevented the university from enrolling or maintaining F-1 students at all; a federal court blocked the revocation with a temporary restraining order and later a preliminary injunction, and litigation over the underlying action continued into the following year. Whatever the eventual outcome, the episode is a real, dated illustration that SEVP certification is an institution-level asset that can be put at risk by factors well outside any individual DSO’s day-to-day recordkeeping – and that the consequence of losing it falls on every F-1 researcher and student the institution sponsors, not just the parties named in the underlying dispute. This is a different and much larger-scale event than the routine record-level actions described in CASRAI’s ICE campus enforcement guide, which covers individual-record terminations and campus enforcement encounters rather than institution-wide certification.

What this means for a grants or research-administration office

• SEVIS compliance is a DSO/RO function, not a grants-office function – but a research office that manages status-dependent personnel on sponsored awards benefits from knowing the reporting deadlines above, so a payroll, effort-reporting, or appointment change reaches the international-scholar office with enough lead time to actually meet them.
• Cross-reference personnel on sponsored projects who hold F-1 OPT/STEM OPT or J-1 Research Scholar/Professor status against your institution’s DSO/RO records periodically, rather than assuming a one-time hire notification was sufficient – SEVIS obligations continue for the life of the appointment.
• Understand that a SEVIS record problem (a missed report, a terminated record, an institutional certification issue) is a distinct failure mode from a visa problem or an enforcement encounter – each has a different owner, a different remedy, and a different CASRAI guide covering it.
• Route any specific SEVIS question to your institution’s DSO/RO office directly; a grants or sponsored-programs office should not attempt to interpret or act on SEVIS record status itself.

Frequently asked questions

Is SEVIS the same thing as a visa?

No. SEVIS is a Department of Homeland Security record-keeping system that tracks F, M, and J nonimmigrant status for the life of a program. A visa is a separate travel document issued by the Department of State, based in part on information – the Form I-20 or DS-2019 – generated from the SEVIS record. A person can have a valid visa stamp and still have a problem at the SEVIS-record level, or vice versa.

Who at my institution is actually responsible for SEVIS reporting?

The Designated School Official (DSO) for F-1/M-1 students and researchers, and the Responsible Officer or Alternate Responsible Officer (RO/ARO) for J-1 exchange visitors – both are specific, credentialed roles within an institution’s international-scholar or international-student office, not the hiring department, the PI, or the research administration office.

What happens if a reportable event is not entered in SEVIS on time?

A late or missed SEVIS update can put the underlying record out of compliance and, depending on the event, can contribute to a record being flagged or terminated – the specific consequence depends on which event was missed and how the DSO/RO office and SEVP subsequently handle it. This is a system-compliance question for the DSO/RO office to manage directly, not something a grants office can resolve.

Does the I-901 fee apply to every SEVIS record?

Most new F-1/M-1 and J-1 SEVIS records require payment of the I-901 fee before a visa or change of status is granted, and a new SEVIS record created after a prior one was terminated generally requires the fee again. Confirm the current fee amount and any exemptions directly with your DSO/RO office, since ICE periodically adjusts the fee.

How is this different from CASRAI’s ICE campus enforcement guide?

This page covers the SEVIS system itself – what it tracks, who has to report to it, and how institutional SEVP certification works. CASRAI’s ICE campus enforcement guide covers a different layer: what happens when immigration enforcement takes an action – a record termination, a visa revocation, or a physical encounter – that touches campus. SEVIS recordkeeping happens continuously regardless of enforcement posture; enforcement actions are a separate, episodic layer on top of it.

For the visa-category mechanics behind a specific SEVIS record, see CASRAI’s J-1 exchange visitor visa guide and OPT and STEM OPT guide; for what to do when enforcement touches a campus, see the ICE campus enforcement guide; and for the broader award-lifecycle and international-research-management context this page sits within, see the Grants Management & Research Funding pillar.