To maintain Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, designated school officials (DSO) are required to keep the Form I–17, “Petition for Approval of School for Attendance by Nonimmigrant Students,” up-to-date with their most current information. For example, if your school’s location, name or programs of study for F or M students change, you will need to submit an update to SEVP through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The Form I–17 must always reflect your school’s current operating status.

Most updates that you make to the Form I–17 require adjudication from SEVP, which takes time to complete. While an update is pending, you can continue enrolling F and M students in programs of study that are already SEVP-certified. You cannot enroll F or M students in any new programs of study while an update to add the new programs is pending. SEVP must adjudicate and approve any new programs before you start enrolling F or M students in those programs. The same rules apply for additional instructional sites.

For location changes, you may enroll F or M students at the new location while the update is pending. This only applies to Form I-17 petition already-approved instructional sites, but the physical location of that instructional site has changed and the change of address is pending approval. The school can continue to operate normally during adjudication of the update. 

If you are adding additional instructional sites, you may not enroll F or M students until adjudication of the Form I-17 petition update has taken place and the additional instructional sites have been approved. When a school adds a completely new site that was not listed on the petition already, they must wait for approval before enrolling students.

The school may continue to operate normally while an update is in progress for a change in ownership or the addition of a new DSO. Make sure your email address, listed in SEVIS, is always up-to-date — this is how you will receive notifications and requests for evidence from SEVP. Keeping information up-to-date will also make the recertification process easier.

While your update is pending, your institution is locked from submitting any additional changes to the Form I–17 petition. If your school needs to make additional updates, request assistance by emailing update.sevis@ice.dhs.gov.