Issued June 20, 2025. Expanded July 9, 2026.
The current moment is creating uncertainty and risk for international students’ ability to enter the U.S. for their studies, including for incoming graduate students entering UC Berkeley’s master’s programs. We note that the pace of visa approvals has been consistent with prior years, but we also understand that the risk of disruption and delay is elevated. Units offering master’s programs are facing decisions about how to handle delayed arrivals and how to deliver instruction for entering students, should there be disruptions. This document is intended to provide guidance to units considering various approaches to the fall semester for their graduate programs. In particular, we have focused our consideration on deadlines for arrival on campus and adjustments associated with decisions about when to set the deadline, which is under the authority of the units offering these programs.
We start with some background information:
- Normal on-time arrival would be considered to be by the first day of instruction for most of our campus; Berkeley Law instruction starts earlier.
- To be eligible for post-completion employment opportunities, F-1 international students must complete one academic year of study in the U.S., which would typically be based on an on-time arrival in the fall and completing both fall and spring semesters entirely at Berkeley.
- There is precedent for allowances of late arrivals up to 30 days after the start of instruction. However, if a different level of scrutiny and vetting is being applied, there is no guarantee of either U.S. entry or eligibility for post-graduation employment if a student does not arrive by the start of instruction.
- International students, once in residence, can only enroll in one online course, and must have in-person instruction to maintain their status.
The Academic Senate recognizes that during the first few weeks of the semester, up until the add/drop deadline, student attendance is frequently not required for courses and it is common that students need to catch up on course materials using recordings or other online resources. We highlight that this period at the beginning of the semester provides some flexibility for programs who wish to allow for delayed arrivals.
We provide the following advice and guidance to units regarding arrival deadlines for incoming international students in graduate programs. First, if international students can arrive prior to the start of instruction, this provides the least amount of risk possible, and maximizes their ability to both enter the U.S. and participate in post-graduation employment. This will also provide units with the most certainty as the semester approaches. If a unit wishes to shoulder additional uncertainty, they may decide to set a later arrival deadline, but it is important to consider the following:
- The arrival deadline must be prior to the add/drop deadline in order to ensure that existing course modalities continue to be followed.
- The unit will likely need to provide documentation of the deadline in a letter that the student can use during their entry into the U.S. This will be included with the documentation provided to the student by BIO.
- Although there is historical precedent for approvals of F-1 OPT post-graduation employment as long as arrival is within the first 30 days of the semester, any arrival after the start of instruction increases uncertainty as to whether a student will receive such approval, particularly in the current moment of U.S. Federal policy. This risk should be communicated to the incoming students.