As of March 23, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) will require students on F-1 OPT to update the mandatory SEVIS reporting requirements of personal and employment changes through the SEVP Portal, including initial employment.
All SEVP Portal communications will only be sent to your primary and preferred email in Axess. Make sure that your primary and preferred email address is up to date.
All address, telephone and employer changes must be reported in the SEVP Portal within 10 days of the change. Students on F-1 OPT will no longer need to update this information through the Bechtel International Center.
Students on STEM OPT cannot use the Portal to add an employer and/or report any material changes to their employment. Students must contact the Bechtel International Center directly with the Form I-983 using The STEM OPT Employment Update Form
SEVP Portal Eligibility
OPT Approved and Active students are only eligible to access the Portal when:
- The request status for OPT changes to “Approved” in their SEVIS record (OPT is approved by the USCIS and this is generally reflected in SEVIS, but if this approval did not transmit properly to SEVIS a request can be submitted to correct this) and;
- The OPT period is active
Email Address
In order to create an individual account in the SEVP Portal, students must have a valid primary email address in Axess. Please be sure that your primary email is also checked as "preferred" in the box next to the email address. The primary and preferred email address in Axess is the email address that is saved in SEVIS. This is the only email address to which the account information will be sent. You will also need to use this email address to log into your SEVP Portal account after the portal has been created.
If a student changes his/her primary email address in Axess when an SEVP Portal account already exists, the student’s Portal account will be automatically locked until the student can validate the new email address through a link sent by email.
Creating an Account
Password and Log-in Address
Using the email address in SEVIS (as described above), SEVP will send students an email inviting them to open an account for the SEVP Portal. This email invitation will be sent from the following email address: do-not-reply.SEVP@ice.dhs.gov. The student should follow the instructions on the email using his/her SEVIS ID number to create a password for the account.
Troubleshooting
If students have any of the following problems they should fill out the Password Reset Form:
- The SEVP invitation email was not received (check spam or junk mail first)
- The SEVP Portal account is locked
- The SEVP Portal has not been logged into for over 90 days
Please note that the password resets or account unlocks go through our office. As such, we are only able to complete your request during normal business hours. Please anticipate password resets and account unlocks to take 1-2 business days.
After Account Creation
You will need to use your primary and preferred email address to log into your SEVP Portal account.
F-1 OPT students may continue to update address information and employment changes directly into the SEVP Portal.
F-1 STEM OPT students will need to update update address information into the SEVP Portal and employment information through Bechtel International Center.
Additional information
Detailed information on the SEVP Portal can be found here.
