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Processing Days and Professional Development Days

Contact Us

Virtual Drop-In Advising

At least two staff members will be available for questions during virtual drop-in. No appointment necessary. Visitors will be assisted on a first-come, first-served basis. There's no drop-in on ISSS processing days.

Click here to go to Virtual Drop-In Advising

Monday and Thursday: 2pm - 4pm
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday: 9am - 11am

If an ISSS staff member determines that an additional appointment will be needed to answer your questions, the staff member will schedule a follow-up appointment based on your availability.

Phone:

Phone: 979-845-1824
Emergency calls outside of business hours, press 2 in the call tree

Emails:

Students and General Questions: isss@tamu.edu
Scholars, Student Interns, and Remote Collaborators: j1scholars@tamu.edu
ISSS Events and Programs: isssprograms@tamu.edu

Office Hours and Location:

Open Monday-Friday

8:00am-12:00pm
1:00pm-5:00pm
ISSS is closed for lunch from 12:00-1:00pm

1st floor of the Pavilion (by Evans Library)
International Student & Scholar Services
Pavilion 110
1226 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-1226

About Us

ISSS Mission Statement

Texas A&M University International Student & Scholar Services supports international students, scholars, and their families as they navigate the U.S. immigration system and life in the U.S. We educate on policies and regulations and provide programs to enhance the Texas A&M international community experience.

ISSS Commitment Statement

Bringing the World to Aggieland: Stronger Together
Howdy! We welcome our international students, scholars, and their dependents to the Aggie community. We strive to build and nurture a culture where being inclusive is who we are. We choose to embrace, encourage, and celebrate different viewpoints, perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds. We are proud of our International Aggies who are changing the world!

ISSS Values

Integrity – We are honest and transparent in our communication.
Teamwork – We support each other through challenges and successes and work together to serve our international community.
Accountability – We take ownership of our work and deliver on our commitments.
Relationships – We cultivate positive relationships with each other and the TAMU international community.
Excellence – We provide extraordinary service and continuously innovate.
Respect – We treat everyone with equity and dignity.

ISSS Service Statement

ISSS manages immigration services strictly and fairly to best protect our International Aggie community and Texas A&M University.

Our promise to you:

We will treat you with dignity and respect.
We will treat you as an individual and strive to understand your unique case.
We will remember that, to you, the U.S. immigration process may be a new or intimidating experience and that you may be nervous.
We will use our available time and resources to equitably assist all stakeholders.
We will provide detailed and accurate information on our website.
We will provide thorough and accurate immigration services.
We will explain our reasoning if we cannot approve a request.

We expect you to:

Treat ISSS staff with dignity and respect.
Research the ISSS website and other pertinent resources before contacting ISSS.
Respect ISSS, university, and federal timelines, policies, and procedures.
Submit your requests as far in advance as possible.
Complete your requests fully and accurately.
Be forthcoming about your purpose and plans.
Accept responsibility for your immigration status.

Meet the ISSS Staff

Services

Document Processing

Processing Time

ISSS only processes on business days.
- Business days are Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, when the university is open.
- Business days do not include weekends (Saturday and Sunday) or university holidays.
- ISSS processing time does not include time necessary for obtaining university department approval and employer documentation.
Standard ISSS processing time is 15 business days.
- Students: ISSS counts 15 business days starting from the date the request is submitted to ISSSin the ISSS Portal.
  - You will know you have successfully submitted a request for review to ISSS when the status of your request shows as "PENDING OFFICE APPROVAL" in the ISSS Portal. You will also receive an email on your Texas A&M email confirming the request has been submitted.
    - If you didn't receive the email and didn't see "pending office approved" in the ISSS portal, it means you have NOT finished submitting the request yet. Please make sure you complete all the e-forms in the request.
  - If your request shows as "ROUTED TO THIRD PARTY" in the ISSS Portal, this means your request has not yet been submitted to ISSS for review. This status means your academic department still needs to take action on your request. Your request will not be sent to ISSS for processing, AND the 15-business day processing window does not start UNTIL your academic department submits its recommendation.
- Scholars:
  - After emailing j1scholars@tamu.edu with your complete request, you will receive an email within 3 business days that confirms a case has been created in the ISSS Portal for processing.
  - Within 15 business days of the case being created you will receive an email stating that the case has been processed or what additional information is needed.
    - If your case is incomplete, ISSS will add additional information to the case within 3 business days after it is received to j1scholars@tamu.edu. Within 10 business days after receiving the additional information, you will receive another email update on your case status.

ISSS cannot and does not expedite requests.

Why ISSS does not expedite requests:

ISSS has a LOT to process, and each staff member is serving approximately 1,000 individuals.
- We process over 15,000 requests per year and receive approximately 100 new requests every day during busy periods.
- We process requests for approximately 10,000 people annually, which includes incoming and current international students, scholars, and their dependents as well as former international students and their dependents who are still in the U.S. with practical training authorization.
Every request deserves thorough review and attention to protect your immigration status.
- ISSS staff must review all requests for compliance with university, state, and federal laws.
- It would be a disservice to YOU if we did not do a thorough review of your request.
It is most equitable when ISSS processes requests in the order they were received.
- Even expediting one request strains ISSS resources and ultimately causes inequitable delays for others.
To further protect your immigration status, ISSS proactively reviews all submitted requests to identify potential case urgency.
- ISSS considers a request to be urgent if the student/scholar faces imminent risk of violating their immigration status.

Document Pick-Up

ISSS uses electronic signatures on most I-20 and DS-2019 requests for students, scholars, and student interns.

This means for most requests, you will only receive digital copies of your I-20s or DS-2019s unless a physical copy was specifically requested. SSN Endorsement requests will still receive a physical letter and I-20/DS-2019. Students will be able to download the digital document in the ISSS Portal. J-1 scholars and student interns will receive their digital DS-2019 via email.

Front Counter Pick-Up

You can pick up your immigration documents at the ISSS office whenever the office is open. You will need to bring a photo ID (passport, aggie card, driver’s license, etc.). ISSS will not give you your documents if you forget to bring a photo ID

Important: Per Homeland Security regulations, ISSS can only give I-20s and DS-2019s to the person on the document. Third party pick-up by friends or family is NOT allowed.

Regular or Express Mailing

ISSS will mail documents using the mailing option you selected with your request:

Regular mail will not cost extra, but the mail also cannot be tracked once it leaves the ISSS office. It may take at least 2 weeks for you to receive your documents via this mailing option. ISSS will mail the documents to the address you provided in your mailing questionnaire.
Express mail orders can be purchased through eShipGlobal (Do NOT order through the FedEx, UPS, or DHL websites directly). You can choose different shipping speeds and shipping companies through eShipGlobal – these options will also have different prices that you must pay.
- Visit https://study.eshipglobal.com/ (do not visit the FedEx, UPS, or DHL websites directly) to create a user name and password and to set up an account. To request shipment, you will need your Texas A&M UIN, mailing address, e-mail address, phone number, and credit card information. If you have questions about how to use this service, review the Help section of the eShipGlobal website or e-mail support@eshipglobal.com.

Immigration Advising

ISSS staff members are available to assist with your questions/concerns through email, phone, and virtual drop-in advising. If your issue cannot be resolved via the other methods, a staff member will schedule a follow-up appointment to meet with you.

Please be aware that during busy periods, ISSS receives a high volume of calls, emails, and virtual drop-in visitors. We may not be able to assist everyone during scheduled office hours, but we will try to assist as quickly as we can.

The busiest months of the year for International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) are at the beginning and end of each semester.

Processing Days and Professional Development Days

Professional Development

We encourage our staff to participate in professional development opportunities, which may impact their individual schedules. Less frequently, there are professional development opportunities that involve all ISSS staff members. During these times, the office schedule may be impacted. Please refer to the list below for upcoming professional development and how it impacts ISSS office hours and services.

Wednesday, October 30: ISSS will be closed all day (8:00am – 5:00pm).
Thursday, November 21: ISSS will be closed from 11:00am – 3:00pm. We will be open and available to assist clientele from 8:00am – 11:00am and again from 3:00pm – 5:00pm.

Processing Days

To process the high volume of requests we receive, we schedule days for our staff to focus time exclusively on processing requests. We refer to these days as Processing Days. On Processing Days, ISSS will not provide Virtual Drop-In Advising. The lobby, phone line, and email account remain available.

October
- Friday, October 11
- Tuesday, October 15
- Thursday, October 24
- Monday, October 28
November
- Thursday, November 7
- Wednesday, November 13
- Tuesday, November 19
- Monday, November 25
December
- Thursday, December 5
- Tuesday, December 10
- Monday, December 16
- Friday, December 20