On July 28, 2008, SEVP turned on a "maintenance job" in the SEVIS system that cancelled student requests that had been in “requested” status more than 180 days, even if the underlying request was already approved or was still pending with USCIS. That cancellation in turn caused approximately 6000 SEVIS records to “complete” prematurely.

On December 11, 2008, SEVP implemented a data fix to reactivate these requests and records, while it works with USCIS to properly update the records with the results of USCIS adjudications through an emergency CLAIMS release and manual updates.

SEVP posted the following notice on the SEVIS Bulletin Board:

"In an attempt to address and elevate the concerns school officials have expressed in regards to student records that had been completed due to cancelled OPT requests, SEVP will implement a data fix that will set the OPT requests back to “Requested” status, and the student records back to “Active” status. This data fix will be performed December 11, 2008. SEVIS will be available to the user community. It is essential that this data fix be implemented to facilitate student travel during the holiday season.

Subsequently, USCIS will follow-up by forwarding SEVIS the CLAIMS adjudication results for all records that have already been impacted by the 180-day maintenance job. If you notice a student record that has not been updated by January 1, 2009, please contact the SEVIS Help Desk at 800-892-4829."

SEVP also sent an e-mail message to SEVIS users:

"In an attempt to address and elevate the concerns school officials have expressed in regards to student records that had been completed due to cancelled OPT requests. SEVP will implement a data fix that will set the OPT requests back to “Requested” status, and the student records back to “Active” status. This data fix will be performed December 11, 2008.

SEVIS will be available to the user community. It is essential that this data fix be implemented to facilitate student travel during the holiday season. Subsequently, USCIS will follow-up by forwarding SEVIS the CLAIMS adjudication results for all records that have already been impacted by the 180-day maintenance job. If you notice a student record that has not been updated by January 1, 2009, please contact the SEVIS Help Desk at 800-892-4829."

SEVP provided additional information on the SEVP Quarterly Stakeholders Teleconference on December 9, 2008:
  • USCIS is currently working on an emergency CLAIMS release so that in the future, CLAIMS will update student requests in SEVIS from "requested" or "pending" status to "approved" status. Note: this emergency release will not provide functionality to update student requests from "requested" to "pending." USCIS estimates the emergency release will happen in mid-December.
  • USCIS will also provide SEVP a file with information on all OPT approved prior to the emergency release so that SEVP may update those student requests in SEVIS to "approved" status.
  • SEVP does not plan to reinstate the maintenance job until SEVP has completed the updates based on the USCIS file. SEVP will only reinstate after providing a SEVIS notice to users. Most likely, it will be at least the end of February before the maintenance job is reinstated.
  • Since the completed records have been reactivated, and the maintenance job has been suspended so that other student requests will not be cancelled based on requested status, SEVP has advised that DSOs do NOT need to request corrections/data fixes separately at this time unless the case is time sensitive.