Verified against official sources — 31 Oct 2026

Transferring Your SEVIS Record to a New School: Steps, Deadlines and the Release Date

NEW Published 31 October 2026

How a SEVIS transfer works between SEVP-certified schools, what the release date switches off, and the deadlines at both schools.

SECTION 01What a SEVIS Transfer Is — a Record Move, Not a New Visa

RULE — When you begin full-time studies at a new school, your SEVIS record must be transferred to it. DHS's SEVIS Help Hub, the guidance DSOs work from, puts it this way: when a student begins full-time studies at a new school, the student's SEVIS record must be transferred to that new school — and the point of doing it that way is that the student keeps the original SEVIS ID and history. No new record is created and no new visa application is involved in the move itself.

RULE — Transfers happen mid-programme or between programmes. The Help Hub: F-1 students may transfer during an academic programme, or after completing an academic programme and before starting a different degree programme or level. The new school must be F-1 SEVIS-certified — students may only transfer to another F-1 SEVIS-certified school.

RULE — Your F-2 dependents move with you. SEVIS transfers all related F-2 dependents together with the primary F-1 student; there is no separate dependent transfer to arrange.

RULE — An eligible record cannot be held hostage. SEVIS records are government property. The Help Hub states that if a student meets the transfer eligibility requirements in the regulation and has been accepted by another SEVP-certified school, DSOs may not refuse to transfer the record for any reason — including financial or business reasons. A school that is owed money still has to release an eligible student's record.

SECTION 02Who Can Transfer — and the Terminated-Record Trap

RULE — Acceptance comes first. DHS's student guide: you must apply and be accepted into another SEVP-certified school before you begin the transfer process; then talk with your DSO. The transfer is something the two schools execute for a student who already has a place.

RULE — Three record states can be moved, but only one arrives healthy. The Help Hub lists the SEVIS record statuses that can be transferred: Active, Completed and Terminated. An Active record arrives at the new school ready to be registered. A record in Terminated or Completed status at the point of transfer stays in that status at the transfer-in school until USCIS approves a reinstatement supported by the transfer-in school — the move itself cures nothing.

RULE — A terminated record cannot simply transfer and resume. Because a terminated record remains terminated after the move, a student whose record was terminated — for a status violation, an unauthorised drop below a full course load, unauthorised employment, or any other termination reason — has two routes, both described by DHS: reinstatement, applied for with the transfer-in school's support (our companion guide, F-1 reinstatement, covers that process), or departing the United States and returning with an Initial Attendance Form I-20 from the new school — which creates a new SEVIS record, resets the F-1 status and benefits clock, but avoids a reinstatement. What you cannot do is use a bare transfer to wash a terminated record clean.

RULE — Some situations block a transfer outright in SEVIS. The Help Hub: SEVIS does not allow a transfer when the student has a requested change of education level, a requested or pending reinstatement, an existing transfer request — or when the Transfer Release Date chosen is more than six months from the current date. A pending reinstatement and a transfer cannot run at the same time; choose the route first.

SECTION 03The Release Date: Chosen With Your Current DSO

RULE — Definition. The Transfer Release Date is the date the SEVIS record is deactivated at the transfer-out school and appears at the transfer-in school. Everything in the transfer keys off it.

RULE — Your part of the process is paperwork for the current DSO. DHS lists the student's steps under the transfer regulation: tell your transfer-out DSO that you intend to transfer; and, as the documented best practice, be ready to provide written confirmation of acceptance from the new school, your written request or permission to transfer the record, the transfer-in school's SEVIS school code, and the new school DSO's contact information.

RULE — The date is set by weighing two calendars. Per the Help Hub process table, you and the transfer-out DSO together determine the best Transfer Release Date based on the current session end date (or post-completion OPT end date) at the transfer-out school and the next session start date at the transfer-in school, and the DSO enters it in SEVIS. You continue your studies at the current school until the release date — the transfer does not interrupt the current programme before that day.

ADVICE — Choose the date like a handover, not a goodbye. A release date set before your current session ends cuts that session off; one set long after it ends stretches the gap before the new programme, which Section 05's five-month rule then measures. The two fixed points DHS names — your current session/OPT end and the new school's next session start — are the frame; pick the date inside it with both DSOs aware.

SECTION 04What Switches Off on the Release Date

RULE — All F-1 employment ends on the release date. All of it. The Help Hub states it without qualification: "All F-1 employment (current and future) is canceled and must stop on the Transfer Release Date." The mechanics in SEVIS: an approved, active employment authorisation with time remaining has its end date changed to the Transfer Release Date; an authorisation set to start in the future is cancelled outright. Until that day, you continue employment until the end of your authorisation or the release date, whichever comes first — after it, no employment authorisation from the old school survives, whether on-campus, CPT or OPT.

RULE — A reduced course load approval dies with it too. Any approved reduced course load (RCL), current or future, is cancelled on the Transfer Release Date. If you still need a reduced load at the new school, that is a fresh conversation with the transfer-in DSO — nothing carries over automatically.

ADVICE — Plan your last working day before you fix the date. Because the release date silently becomes the end date of every live authorisation, a student mid-OPT who transfers gives up the remainder of that OPT on the release date (Section 05 shows how the five-month clock then runs from the OPT end date). If finishing a work commitment matters, sequence it before the release date — there is no grace tail afterwards.

SECTION 05The Steps and the Deadlines, in Order

RULE — The post-completion window: act inside the 60-day grace period. A transfer after finishing is arranged inside the usual departure-preparation window. DHS's student guide frames the alternative: a student who has maintained status and finished a programme of study or an authorised period of post-completion OPT, and who does not transfer to another SEVP-certified school, has a 60-day grace period to depart the United States. USCIS's Policy Manual lists transferring to another SEVP-certified school among the things a student may do within the 60 days after OPT ends. In other words, the transfer request belongs inside that 60-day window — a student who lets it close has no transfer left to make from inside the country.

RULE — Changing your mind only works before the release date. If you decide not to transfer after all, the transfer-out DSO can cancel the pending transfer at any point before the Transfer Release Date. After that date, undoing the move takes a data fix through the SEVP Response Center (1-800-892-4829 / 703-603-3400) — and the Help Hub warns that correcting a transfer for a student who stays at the transfer-out school creates a new student record in which important information will be lost. Decide before the date, not after it.

SECTION 06Leaving the USA, Travel Between Schools, and the I-901 Fee

RULE — The transfer itself never requires you to leave. Nothing in the DHS process involves a departure: the record moves between the two schools in SEVIS while you continue at the old school until the release date and start at the new one the following session. Departure appears in DHS's transfer guidance only as the alternative route for a terminated or completed record (Section 02) — not as a step in an ordinary transfer.

PARTIALLY VERIFIED — Travel between the two schools. If you travel abroad in the gap between schools, the document that identifies you from the release date onward is the new school's transfer Form I-20, carrying your same SEVIS ID. Whether you can re-enter on that I-20 together with an existing, still-valid F-1 visa is a point DHS answers on its student-facing transfer instructions page — that page could not be opened in this check, so we flag the point rather than state it as read from DHS text. The safe course, and our advice: if you plan travel between schools, clear the timing and documents with the transfer-in school's DSO before you book, and read our F-1 travel and re-entry guide for the general rules that govern any return.

PARTIALLY VERIFIED — The I-901 SEVIS fee. A transfer keeps your original SEVIS ID and history (Section 01). DHS's I-901 fee page — an older page, which carries a notice that its content may be outdated — does not list a transfer among the situations in which a student may need to pay the fee again; the situations it names are applying for reinstatement of student status and having been out of the United States for more than five months, and it directs a student who is unsure whether the fee is owed again for a transfer to ask their DSO. We print the point at exactly that strength: no new I-901 payment is described by DHS for a transfer, and if your case is unusual, your DSO is the confirmation DHS itself points to. (This site never prints the I-901 amount in any case.)

FAQFrequently Asked Questions

Official references and verification status

These official references were accessed and checked on 31 October 2026, and this guide's RULE items were verified claim-by-claim against them (record in the accompanying .sources.md file). Two honest limits. First, travel between schools: DHS's student-facing "Instructions for Transferring to Another School as an F-1 Student" page — the page its guides link for the travel-and-re-entry detail — could not be opened in this pass, so the re-entry point in Section 06 is labelled PARTIALLY VERIFIED and readers are directed to their transfer-in DSO. Second, the I-901 fee page relied on for Section 06 is a DHS page dating from 2012 that carries a notice that its content may be outdated; the draft prints that point at exactly the strength the page supports and flags it the same way. Every other claim rests on the DHS sources below, read directly.

• SEVIS Help Hub (DHS) — Manage Transfer of F-1 SEVIS Record
• Study in the States (DHS) — F-1 Postsecondary guide (Transfer to Another SEVP-Certified School; Depart the United States)
• Study in the States (DHS) — Paying Your I-901 SEVIS Fee
• USCIS Policy Manual — Vol. 2, Part F, Ch. 5: Practical Training (grace-period options)

General educational information, not individualized legal advice. Consult your DSO or a qualified U.S. immigration attorney for case-specific questions.

General information only. This guide is based on official sources publicly available and checked on the date shown on this page. Visa rules change, and consular and USCIS officers decide every case on its own facts — nothing here is a confirmation or a guarantee for your individual case, and this is not legal advice. Always confirm the current requirement on the official page linked in this guide before you act, and consider a qualified immigration attorney for your specific situation.