Orientation and Immigration Check-in

All new students are required to attend their respective orientation programs and complete their Immigration Check-in at OISS as soon as possible after arrival in the United States. Make your travel plans accordingly.

Please note that failure to attend both the international orientation and an immigration check-in with OISS will result in a hold being placed on your student record and may affect your immigration status.

Orientation and Check-in Process for Spring 2025

All new international students starting their program or arriving in the U.S. for the first time in the Spring 2025 semester must complete the mandatory immigration check-in and attend their respective orientation program. Upon completing all four required steps, you will be in compliance and ready to begin your program at Rice University. Returning students arriving under a new immigration record must also complete the mandatory immigration check-in.

STEP 1: Complete the "OISS Immigration Compliance" Canvas course

Complete the OISS Immigration Compliance Canvas course at https://catalog.rice.edu/courses/oiss-immigration-compliance-2024-2025.

The OISS Immigration Compliance Canvas course can be completed anytime between finishing the initial admissions process in the OISS Portal and arriving in Houston to begin your program. This course will provide a comprehensive overview of important immigration information. It is a self-paced course, and you do not need to complete all the modules at once. We estimate the total completion time to be approximately one hour.

All international students at Rice must complete this course as part of their mandatory OISS process before starting their academic program at Rice. This includes returning students beginning a new program or returning from approved leave on a new immigration record.

Upon completing the Canvas course, you will receive a certificate of completion by email, which you must upload to your OISS Portal account.

If you do not receive the email, you can also download the certificate of completion from your Rice Catalog "student dashboard" under the Completed tab.
1) Login to catalog.rice.edu
2) Click on your name in the top right corner and select "Student Dashboard."
3) Choose Completed courses
4) Click on "Download" to get your certificate of completion

STEP 2: Document Check-in

Upload the required copies of your immigration documents to your OISS Portal account.

1. Access your OISS Portal account at https://oissportal.rice.edu/. Your login credentials are the same as when you uploaded the items needed for your I-20/OISS admissions processing. You should not be creating a new account at this time.
2. Click on "STEP 2: Upload Supporting Documents"
3. Find the items titled "Post-Arrival E-Check-in"
4. Upload the required documents that are not yet marked as Complete. If you have already uploaded some documents, check for comments informing you of any remaining issues. Please allow 24-48 hours for the review process.
5. Click "Submit for Approval," which will change the Requirement Status for the Requirement Type from "Needs Submission" to "Needs Review." Otherwise, we will not be notified of your uploaded documents.

Required Post-Arrival E-Check-in documents include:

• E-Check-in Form: Complete the form at https://oiss.rice.edu/Echeck, and upload a copy of the email you receive with your responses. Please make sure to use the specific physical address where you live. You may not use the general Rice University address of 6100 Main Street for this purpose.
• Passport pages: Upload a copy of your F-1/J-1 visa (unless you are a Canadian citizen). You only have to upload your passport bio page if you have received a new passport since submitting one for your I-20/admissions processing.
• I-94 record: You can access your I-94 at https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home after entering the United States. Please note that we require the Most Recent I-94; we do not require your travel history.
• Signed I-20/DS-2019: This is the I-20 (F-1 visa holders) or DS-2019 (J-1 visa holders) you received from Rice University (unless your J-1 visa is externally sponsored, e.g., by Fulbright). Please make sure you have signed the first page before uploading the copy.
• Dependent documents: These are only required if you have F-2 or J-2 dependents (i.e., spouse and/or child) with you in the U.S. Please do not upload duplicates of your own documents under this section. If you do not have dependents, we will close this section automatically when reviewing your other documents.
• Other status documents: If you are on a visa other than F-1 or J-1, please provide other status documents (for example, USCIS Approval Notice, EAD) applicable to your situation.

STEP 3: ESTHER Address Update

All students must update their address in the Local Address field in their ESTHER account with the local address where they reside. Please follow the formatting guidelines so that SEVIS will properly accept your address.

STEP 4: International Student Orientation

During the mandatory international student orientation, students will review immigration regulations and programs designed to support the international population.

Spring 2025 Orientation for all international students will take place on Friday, January 17, 2025, 3:00-5:00 pm, in Sewall Hall 309. In addition to the mandatory immigration sessions, please see the schedule below for other optional events.

Schedule of Events for 01/17/2025

Please also see our Onboarding webpage at https://oiss.rice.edu/onboarding.