June 20, 2025
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, at this moment, the pace of visa approvals is consistent with prior years, but we also understand that the risk of disruption and delay is quite elevated this year. 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 2025 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 at the start of instruction, August 27, 2025 for most of our campus; Berkeley Law instruction starts August 18, 2025.
- 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, this year there is a different level of scrutiny and vetting being applied, so 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.
- Since Berkeley’s recertification process is currently underway, programs should not change modality (i.e., online or hybrid) to accommodate anticipated visa delays at this time, even for a single cohort or for a single semester.
This final point merits expanded discussion, due to the fact that several programs have expressed interest in supporting a remote semester for international students as part of their graduate program. UC Berkeley is currently undergoing recertification of our ability to host international students and visitors (SEVP Certification), and our “Petition for Approval of School of Attendance by Nonimmigrant Students” (our I-17), which contains information about program modalities, cannot be altered during the review period. We conclude that changing modality for a degree, even for a single semester, is both challenging in the current Federal climate and undesirable from a number of perspectives, including considerations of pedagogy, cohort-building, advising, and employment opportunities. As such, the Academic Senate will retain our normal review protocols for changes to courses and degrees (through COCI and Graduate Council, respectively).
At the same time, we recognize that during the first few weeks of the semester, up until the add/drop deadline (September 17, 2025, or the 4th Wednesday of the semester), 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 of September 17, 2025 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.