If you are an F or M student studying in the United States, you may be eligible to transfer to a new school.

To be eligible to transfer, you must consistently maintain F or M status and follow the correct transfer procedures. To maintain your status at your current school, you must continue attending all of your classes while you are waiting to transfer. For an F student, that is until your transfer release date. Your transfer release date is the day on which the designated school official (DSO) at your current school moves responsibility for your Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) record to your new school. For an M student, that is until you have submitted an application for approval to transfer. In most cases, M students may only transfer within the first six months of their program.

If your DSO believes you may not have maintained your F or M status, your SEVIS record could be in Terminated status, which is the DSO’s way of reporting a concern to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. You may still be able to transfer in Terminated status. Talk to your current DSO and a DSO at the new school if you want to transfer with a terminated record.

If you have employment authorization and are in the process of transferring to a new school, talk to your current DSO about how your transfer will affect your employment authorization. You may continue authorized work at your current school until the transfer release date in SEVIS, but all work authorization ends after that date. After you transfer to your new school, talk to your DSO about employment options at that school.