The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) will soon require school officials filing an initial petition or an update to their school’s Form I-17, “Petition for Approval of School Attendance by Nonimmigrant Student,” to submit the minimum evidence required for filing at the same time they submit their request in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

The evidence a school is required to provide to SEVP depends on the type of petition request (i.e., initial or update), the program of study offered and the school’s accreditation status. For guides that outline the type of evidence your school must submit, please visit the Operating Instructions section of ICE.gov/SEVP, under the Form I-17 Filing Evidence tab.

In future releases, SEVP plans to deploy functionality that will allow school officials to upload evidence directly into SEVIS. Until that functionality is available, SEVP asks that beginning Oct. 1, 2016, school officials:

• Filing an initial petition electronically submit their school’s evidence by scanning the documents and emailing them to initial.sevis@ice.dhs.gov.
• Submitting an update to an existing Form I-17 must electronically submit evidence by scanning the documents and emailing them to update.sevis@ice.dhs.gov.
• The SEVP recertification process already requires schools to submit the necessary evidence when filing, and thus the recertification process will not be changing at this time.

Please note, if your school is making any changes to the list of designated school officials, please send the supporting evidence to FormI17SupportingEvidence@ice.dhs.gov.

For more information about this process change, please visit the Form I-17 Filing Evidence in the Operating Instructions section of ICE.gov/SEVP and tune into the Sept. 9, 2016  SEVIS Form I-17 Workflow Webinar.