All new international students are required to complete their immigration check-in with OISS as soon as possible after arrival in the United States and attend their respective orientation programs.

Please note that failure to complete the immigration check-in process 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 2026

Upon completing all the steps below, new students will be in compliance and ready to begin their program at Rice University. Returning students arriving under a new immigration record must also complete the mandatory immigration check-in process.

STEP 1: Pre-Arrival Orientation

OISS utilizes Homebase, a platform that provides easy access to online courses designed to educate you on key immigration processes.

At this time, we have two courses for incoming students:
1) F-1 (or J-1) Student Pre-Arrival & Immigration Compliance
2) New Student Visa Tracking

The F-1 (or J-1) Student Pre-Arrival & Immigration Compliance course is a mandatory part of your immigration check-in process. In addition to covering important information about your F-1/J-1 status and how to maintain it, it also provides valuable pre-arrival guidance to help you best prepare for your arrival. Therefore, we recommend that you start the course at your earliest convenience.

The New Student Visa Tracking course consists of a simple online form, through which you can keep Rice informed about your progress in the visa application process. We ask that you return to update this form as you progress on your journey to Rice.

A link to register for these courses is sent together with the I-20/DS-2019. If you need assistance with accessing Homebase, please contact oiss@rice.edu.

A Certificate of Completion for the F-1 (or J-1) Student Pre-Arrival & Immigration Compliance course must be uploaded to your OISS Portal account as part of your immigration check-in process.

STEP 2: OISS Portal

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.

STEP 1: Personal Information and Emergency Contact

Update the "Travel Credentials" section:

• I-94 Information: Enter the I-94 Admission Number and Date Issued (i.e., arrival date to the U.S.). The expiration date (i.e., the Admit Until Date) should read D/S, in which case you should leave the I-94 Expiration Date field blank. If your I-94 record is issued with an actual Admit Until Date, please contact OISS immediately.

• Passport: Update your Passport Number, Expiration Date, and issuing Country, if necessary.

• Visa Information: Enter your Visa Expiration Date and Visa Issue Date.

STEP 2: Upload Supporting Documents

Find the items titled "Post-Arrival E-Check-in" and upload all 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 business hours for the review process to be completed.

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

• OISS Pre-Arrival & Immigration Compliance Course: Upload a copy of the Certificate of Completion for the Homebase F-1 (or J-1) Student Pre-Arrival & Immigration Compliance course.

• Passport pages: Upload a copy of your F-1/J-1 visa from your passport (unless you are a Canadian citizen or were approved for a Change of Status in the U.S.). 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. If you were approved for a Change of Status to F-1 in the U.S., your I-94 record is included in your I-797A Approval Notice from USCIS.

• 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) in your Rice-sponsored SEVIS record. If you have dependents and they arrived in the U.S. with you, please upload their documents here. If your dependents will arrive later, please upload a note from you confirming their estimated time of arrival. If you do not have dependents, we will close this section automatically when reviewing your other documents. Do not upload duplicates of your own documents under this section.

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, as well as add their U.S. phone number in the Personal Cell Phone field, as soon as possible after entering the U.S.

When updating your address, pay special attention to the proper address formatting requirements:
Line 1: The street number and name – do not enter the name of your apartment complex or college, or any other information on this line
Line 2: The apartment or room number – this line can be left blank if you live in a house
City, State, and Zip Code must be entered correctly.

When updating your phone number, please enter the area code (i.e., the first 3 digits) separately from the remaining 7 digits. Do not include any dashes or other additional characters or numerals. The International Access Code and Phone Number section must be left blank. Please see the screenshot below for an example of a correctly entered phone number.

STEP 4: International Student Orientation

Spring 2026 Orientation for all international students will take place on Friday, January 16, 2026. More information coming soon!

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