We are looking forward to advising you! The following professional staff members will be able to support you according to your needs:
Jacob Mercer
(320)308-4274
This week we are proud to present our new Student Government President-Elect, Milan Raj Paswan! Milan is a Marketing Major from Nepal. He is also a student worker at our CIS Front Desk!
“It feels great to be elected as the President of the Student Government Association. With all of your support, we will for sure be able to initiate changes to support every student on campus.”
Milan’s favorite spot on campus is Atwood because there are many places that can help one relax. You can sit by the fireplace or grab some Chick-Fil-A and hangout in the main lounge!
One thing Milan would like to tell international students is that it can get pretty overwhelming when you are applying to or are here in another country. But don’t panic! Reach out to seniors, student organizations and CIS to ask questions! Once you are here, SCSU offers tons of resources to help you ease your transition. You will eventually find your home away from home.
USCIS is experiencing delays in issuing receipt notices for some applications and petitions (OPT, STEM Extension, Severe Economic Hardship) filed to USCIS lockbox facilities. This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors that are out of CIS’s control.
According to USCIS: “If you have already filed your application and are waiting for your receipt notice, we appreciate your patience. We are working as quickly as possible to complete the intake of all filings. You can take steps to decrease the time it takes us to process and send your receipt notice or find out the status of your case:
Finally, visit our Form Filing Tips webpage for more information on filing with USCIS and our online tools for help in managing your application.”
On February 26, 2021, USCIS announced flexibilities for certain international students affected by delayed receipt notices for Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. These flexibilities apply only to applications received on or after Oct. 1, 2020, through May 1, 2021, inclusive.
USCIS has experienced delays at certain lockboxes in issuing receipt notices for Form I-765 for Optional Practical Training (OPT) for F-1 students. These delays are a result of COVID-19 restrictions, a dramatic increase in filings of certain benefit requests, postal service volume and delays, and other external factors. While they have made progress in addressing the problem, they are extending the following flexibilities to assist certain applicants for OPT impacted by the delays.
If the program end date on your I-20 or DS-2019 falls in May 2021, please review the following options for maintaining your status in the U.S.:
1. Apply for an extension of your I-20
If you have not yet completed your program of study, please follow the application procedures for a Program Extension for F-1 Students and submit a completed Program Extension form to CIS at least 2 weeks before your I-20 end date. Due to the pandemic, CIS is waiving the requirement for proof of financial support. Please note: the extension absolutely must be made by your I-20 end date. SEVIS will not allow us to extend your program after that.
2. Apply for OPT
If you are completing your program of study this semester, you may be eligible to apply for OPT. The latest USCIS can receive your OPT application is July 5, 2021. More information can be found on our webpage: OPT Application Procedures.
By: Kameiko Vue (Class of 2020) and Tonny Yang (Class of 2017 & 2019)
Kameiko’s Story
I took part in the South East Asia (SEA) study abroad program in the winter of 2017-2018. This study abroad trip included going to Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. I wanted to be a part of this trip because I wanted to explore the world and enrich myself in the culture, people and food. Because of this trip, I experienced riding on an airplane and traveling out of the country for the first time ever. Not to mention, I built ever lasting friendships with individuals that I will cherish forever.
Thanks to a collaboration of SCSU student organizations, Journey Across South Asia, on April 10, was a success! Check out this amazing video that was created to highlight this great event!
Student Organizations:
By: Sabrina Nkauj Nag Yang, Education Abroad Graduate Assistant
I began graduate school in the middle of a pandemic and saw the devastating effects COVID-19 wreaked upon the Hmong student population at St. Cloud State. COVID-19 has waged its wrath through many different aspects of normal everyday life. In this place, right here in the now, higher education has been greatly impacted.
Opportunities in higher education that were created to foster academic growth and leadership opportunities were cancelled. Departments, like Education Abroad, lost the opportunity to engage and interact with students. Students have lost their sense of belonging at universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they hardly know their professors, and they barely recognize various departments that can be utilized to support higher education success. This especially holds true for many of the Hmong students struggling to stay afloat in their undergraduate career.
HMoob (Hmong) around the World was brought to life to inspire, to ignite, and to reimagine the hope of education abroad opportunities for students in the near future. I hope you find courage, I hope you find strength, and I hope you study abroad. HMoob (Hmong) around the World will showcase a series of testimonials from HMoob alum who look like you, speak the same language as you, and may have experienced similar things as HMoob (Hmong) American college students. These are their education abroad stories.
By: Spencer Rojas
Pictures are worth a 1000 words – but I think they are worth even more when you are studying abroad. My biggest issue was finding a fun way to capture these memories and live in the moment. I was able to make these moments even more memorable by using a cool app that is a little retro. Disposable is a free app that allows you to take pictures but does not let you see them until 9:00 am the next day. The photos have that disposable camera look and just give off a cool vibe. I used this app a lot because it was fun to take pictures without having to worry about how the pictures would turn out. It allowed me to live more in the moment. It was fun to relive the moments when the photos would show up at 9:00 am the next day. Now that I am back in the US, it is fun to remember all the good times I had in The Netherlands.
Check out some of my favorite photos taken using the Disposable app:
About the Author: Spencer is a Global Mentor in the Education Abroad office at St. Cloud State University. He studied abroad to HAN University – Netherlands and the Greece & Netherlands Political Science short-term program.
By: Jacob Mercer
Once on a flight from Seoul to Honolulu, I sat next to a young couple who opened matching blue backpacks and pulled out matching editions of The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings. It was one of those “Now in Theaters” book jackets, same as the movie poster: George Clooney sitting at a bar, looking over his shoulder at his kids on the beach with this melancholy, indie-film kind of expression. “How’s the book?” I asked.
The man made a face. “Bad,” he said.
“But we love George Clooney,” the woman said.
“Did you see the movie?” I asked.
“We’re reading the book first.”
“Did you know the book was set in Hawaii?” I asked.
“Of course,” the man said. “We always read books about the place we’re traveling to.”
“Me too!” I said, taking out my copy of Hotel Honolulu—and then we all gave each other high-fives. (Or maybe we didn’t, but that’s how I like to remember it.)