While on OPT you are still legally required to report certain information to ISSS. Changes to any of the following must be reported within 10 days of the event:

  • Changes in name or residential/mailing address
  • Report your employer name, address, starting/ending dates, and supervisor’s email within 10 days of any changes or new employment
  • Report changes to another immigration status
  • If you will leave your OPT employment before your OPT end date
  • Notify ISSS if your email address changes

To report, login to your iHawk account and click the blue login button for "Client Services." You will need your HawkID and password. If you need to look up your HawkID or change your password or forgot your password, visit the ITS website or call the ITS Help Desk at 319-384-4357 and ask for a password reset.

After you have logged into your iHawk account, please select "F-1 Practical Training" and go to the "Optional Practical Training (OPT) -- New Request" where you will be able to complete the "Update Personal Information", "Add New Employer", and "Update Employment Information" e-forms.

  • "Update Personal Information" --- change of personal address and other contact information, leaving the OPT employment and US before OPT expiration date;
  • "Add New Employer" --- starting OPT employment, changing employer, update employer contact information;
  • "Update Employment Information" --- ending/ changing OPT employment (before OPT expiration date),

Please remember that if you are ending one job and starting a new job both an "Update Employer Information" report must be done so that we can record the end date of that employment, and then an "Add New Employer" report is needed in order to record the new employer.

Should I Report My Information Directly to SEVIS?

In March 2018 SEVP made it possible for students to log in directly to the SEVIS system to report updates to your address, telephone, and employer information. For the time being we encourage students to continue to use our iHawk e-form to update this information in order to avoid conflicting information. This is a new direct access that will be granted to those who are on post-completion 12-month OPT or the STEM OPT extension. It enables you to create an account to access parts of your SEVIS (federal immigration) record so that you can directly report information on changes to your address, telephone, and employer.

Why Does ISSS Prefer We Not Use This?

  • Our iHawk system already gathers your address, phone, and employer information and submits it to SEVIS for you.

  • You certainly can use the SEVP Portal instead if you wish, but you need to be aware of the following:

    • Anything you enter directly into SEVIS is not automatically uploaded back into our iHawk system. This means we may then have mismatching or incomplete information about your address, phone, and employer. This may impact our ability to accurately advise you in some cases if we are not aware that you have entered this information in SEVIS yourself.

    • Our iHawk system is set up to send automated reminders when you have not yet reported employment information, or when you need to consider whether your address needs to be updated. If you have entered this information directly into SEVIS yourself, iHawk may not know and will still send you reminders, which may be confusing or inaccurate.

    • This is a new process and bugs or glitches are possible, so we also prefer to wait and see how things go before endorsing it. If you have difficulties submitting the information or do not submit it correctly, ISSS may not be able to advise you or assist with problems. If anything goes wrong with your submission, you may not have a record of what was done. Submitting your information to iHawk instead will both keep a record in our iHawk system as well as in SEVIS.

Where Can I Read More Information?

  • SEVP has created an SEVP Portal Help section on Study in the States with:

    • Information about the portal.

    • The SEVP Portal User Guide which provides screenshots and detailed step-by-step instructions for using the portal.

    • SEVP Portal videos.

    • A useful one-page reference sheet on the portal.

How long can I stay in the United States after my OPT expires?

Sixty (60) days, unless you have either 1) obtained a new I-20 to enter a new degree program (and requested a transfer to another school), or 2) applied for a STEM OPT extension, or 3) applied to change to another immigration status. Students are not required to submit OPT report to ISSS once their OPT expires. However, they are required to depart the United States within 60 days of OPT expiration date, unless they do one of the three events listed above.

 

If you experience any difficulty, please contact International Student and Scholar Services at isss@uiowa.edu