Communique – July 2025

Greetings from the ISSO!

In this issue:

Immigration Related Updates Impacting the Scholar Community

The Scholar Services Team remains committed to advising and assisting our international scholar community navigate immigration processing during a time of uncertainty. Please review our ISSO news and travel advisory regularly for information and updates or reach out to your your designated scholar advisor. Here are some recent actions by the second Trump Administration that may impact travel and visa processing:

Travel Bans: Last month President Trump announced full travel bans for nationals from 12 countries as well as partial bans for nationals of 7 additional countries. It it is important to note that the ban also outlines several exclusions and exceptions, one of which allows individuals with a valid visa that was issued prior June 9, 2025 to enter or re-enter the U.S.  Essentially this ban does not restrict all travel but it restricts new visa eligibility.

In addition, news outlets are reporting that an internal Department of State (DOS) memo issued to consular posts that 36 more countries will be given 60 days to meet the administrations benchmarks and requirements or face a partial or full entry ban similar to the ban on the 19 countries already impacted.

The ISSO has reached out individually to impacted scholars to discuss how this may impact any upcoming or future travel plans.  We anticipate the implemented bans, including any additions, will be in place indefinitely, and will restrict the ability to travel for impacted individuals as well as BU’s ability to host scholars who are not currently in the US and are from the impacted countries

Expanded Screening and Vetting for Visa Applicants:  The Department of Status resumed scheduling visa interview appointments on June 18th after a 3 week pause.  As part of this resumption, consular officers have been directed to screen new and returning student and scholar visa applicants’ (in F or J classifications) online presence for indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles of the US.  You can find more details about the additional screening here.

We expect this new vetting process to significantly slow the visa process for our incoming J scholars.  Thus, in order to set realistic expectations for incoming J scholars, the ISSO will no longer issue DS-2019 forms for appointments that are expected to start 60 days or less from the day we receive the immigration processing packet.  We ask that you consider the timeframe for internal processing at your school/center when you are determining an appropriate start date so that you can send completed immigration processing packet, including required approval signatures and appointment letters issued to allow for ISSO to process at least 90 days before the desired start date.

Given that this is a recent development, it remains unclear how different consular officers will apply these directives but we will continue to update the community as more information becomes available.

Onboarding and ISSO Clearance Reminders

As you are welcoming new employees, faculty and scholars to your department, please be reminded that all new foreign-nationals are required to check-in with the ISSO prior to commencing their employment or activity at BU. Please note the following as you are onboarding a foreign national in your unit.

  • Please insure that all new employees/scholars are in possession of a BUID number before they check-in with the ISSO. If they are not, hiring units can obtain the BUID number as follows:
    • For non-compensated Visiting Researchers or Visiting Students, request a BUID number via that appropriate affiliate account.
    • For employees, obtain the BUID number when you process the hire in SAP

If you obtained the BUID number via the provisional ‘ISSO Processing Affiliate’ account to facilitate immigration sponsorship for the arriving employee, faculty or scholar, also note the following:

    • To avoid duplicate BUID number creation, reference the already created BUID number when you process the hire in SAP and
    • The ISSO Processing Affiliate is ONLY for immigration processing and is not a formal BU appointment/affiliation for Terrier Card issuance or other BU account provisioning. Thus the host department will need to update the BU affiliation as part of the overall onboarding process.
  • New employees must schedule their I-9 employment verification appointment before their 3rd day of employment. Since USCIS regulations regarding employment verification require us to review original immigration/employment documents, we cannot provide this service virtually, except when the employee will be fully remote.
  • Arriving J-1 exchange visitors must attend a virtual orientation session that requires advance registration. If they are also going to be BU employees, they need to schedule the in-person new employee I-9 appointment separately via the same scheduling page.
  • Uncompensated Visiting Researchers, Visiting Students and other affiliates who are not sponsored by BU in the J-1 classification can contact their scholar advisor to initiate a virtual clearance and are not required to see us in-person. However, they are certainly welcome to schedule an in-person 15-minute a appointment if an in-person appointment is preferred.

To facilitate the process, please forward our appointment scheduling information to any arriving scholars and employees so that they can obtain ISSO clearance to commence their activity or employment at BU.  Please contact your Scholar Advisor if you have any questions or have a new employee/scholar that may require other accommodations.

Government mandates that all payments to the government be electronic

As part of President Trumps efforts to modernize how the government handles money the federal government will stop accepting and issuing paper checks effective September 30, 2025.  This will impact the ability to pay for immigration processing, including the $2805 premium processing fee that hiring units often agree to pay in order to expedite certain petitions to USCIS (i.e. H-1B, O-1, etc.).  While the ISSO remains funded to cover the regular processing fees and will determine how to best manage those fees, hiring units continue to be responsible for the $2805 premium process fee as appropriate. Thus, hiring units that support employees in H-1B status should speak with their finance team to determine how to manage those payments via credit card moving forward since it will no longer be possible to request paper checks from Accounts Payable.  We will continue to provide information and instructions as more information is available.

We appreciate your continued support!