Maintaining Immigration Status

Research, teaching and employment at BU are supported in a variety of nonimmigrant immigration classifications. It is important to understand your responsibilities as a foreign national in the U.S. to avoid engaging in activities that could jeopardize the terms of your immigration status. The ISSO is here to educate and guide you, but it is your responsibility to keep track of your employment eligibility and your immigration documents.

You, your host department and the ISSO all play different roles in supporting your activities and your immigration status here at BU:

• You (Scholar/Employee): Maintain lawful status throughout your BU stay. Provide documents to ISSO and consult the ISSO before any changes to your work, status, or personal information.
• Hiring/Host Department: Provide mentorship and logistical support. Share accurate, timely appointment details with ISSO and consult with ISSO before any changes.
• ISSO: Supports research, teaching, and employment by managing visa sponsorship, onboarding, updates, reminders, and immigration guidance

The ISSO Scholar Services Team is here to help – schedule a virtual or in-person appointment or contact us anytime.

J-1 Regulations & Responsibilities H-1B Regulations & Responsibilities

Changes to Research, Teaching or Employment at BU

Your ISSO profile expiration date reflects the earliest of either:

1. The expiration of your immigration status, or
2. Your employment authorization, or
3. Your projected employment end date.

It is critical that you notify ISSO before any changes or extensions to your BU appointment/affiliation so we can determine how this impacts your current immigration status. Extensions and certain changes will require ISSO to issue a new immigration document and/or request an extension/amendment from USCIS. Plan ahead to avoid gaps in your employment, research, or teaching at BU.

Notify the ISSO

• If you expect your employment/appointment to be extended
• You are expecting a promotion or other change in job title, rank or job classification
• Your job duties/responsibilities will be changing substantially
• You expect any changes to your funding source or amount
• You expect a decrease or substantial increase in salary/benefits (other than standard annual adjustments)
• Your work location(s) will change
• You are approved for a flexible work arrangement
• Your position will be changing from full-time to part-time (or part-time to full-time)
• Your employment/appointment at BU will be interrupted (medical leave, sabbatical, research elsewhere, visa or immigration processing delays, personal issues, etc.)
• Your employment/appointment will be shifted to another BU host department
• You will be ending your employment/appointment and leaving your position at BU

Personal Changes

External Employment/Activities

If your immigration status is sponsored by BU, you are generally not permitted to work for a different employer without additional employment authorization. If you are invited to give a lecture at another institution, your host may reimburse you for direct travel expenses (i.e., transportation, hotel, food, etc.) but they cannot pay you for your services or time (i.e. honorarium, stipend or salary) Compensation without authorization is a violation of your immigration status.

H-1B, TN and O-1 employees are prohibited from working at another employer in the U.S. unless that employer obtains a concurrent authorization from USCIS.

Most BU sponsored J-1 exchange visitors may obtain permission to engage in and receive payment for “occasional lectures and short-term consultations” outside of their primary program at BU. This activity must be pre-approved by the ISSO and must compliment your original J program activity.

Your ISSO Scholar Advisor will review the request and will issue a letter authorizing the activity if permissible. Please plan accordingly and allow 10 business days for ISSO processing.

Public Charge

Public Charge is a general term for an individual who is indigent or sick person who must be taken care of at public expense. Liable to become a Public Charge is the term used in the United States to classify prospective immigrants who are denied entry due to their lack of sustainable living means.

A long-standing Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) public charge provision at INA 212(a)(4) establishes that applicants for a visa, admission, or adjustment of status are inadmissible to the United States if they are likely at any time to become a public charge. INA 212(a)(4) does not directly reference nonimmigrant applications for extension of stay (EOS) or change of status (COS), because they are not applications for a visa, admission, or adjustment of status. Agency policy guidance established by legacy INS in 1999 has therefore generally applied a formal INA 212(a)(4) review only to applicants for adjustment of status to permanent residence and in some cases, whether an alien is deportable on public charge grounds. See INS field guidance, published at 64 FR 28689 (May 26, 1999). That policy also narrowly defined “public benefits” to exclude past receipt of non-cash benefits (other than institutionalization for long-term care) or past receipt of special-purpose cash benefits not for income maintenance.

Every nonimmigrant seeking admission or extension or change of status must satisfy the inspector or adjudicator that he or she is capable of maintaining status and will not become a public charge. Therefore, international students and scholars are required to document sufficient sources of funding to cover tuition, fees and living expenses in order to be sponsored for the F-1 or J-1 status. They are also required to demonstrate sufficient private funding at the point of visa application so they will not become a public charge while in the U.S. especially because options for employment or for earning income to support these expenses are so limited in these categories.

Please see more details on the USDHS Public Charge Fact Sheet.